In the sharing economy building trust is key

Where there is trust, there can be collaboration

In the sharing economy building trust – along with convenience – is one of the biggest factors. The fastest growing startups in the sharing economy are those which have been able to build trust in their community.

For those building peer-to-peer marketplaces, one of the biggest pain points is figuring out how to communicate trust between users. Airbnb – Peer-to-Peer accommodations – experienced a number of PR setbacks and therefore launched a Trust & Safety Center, which included a $1.000.000 host insurance guarantee.

Sites like Airbnb and homeswapping site Love Home Swap have focused on integrating a user’s social graph – Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ – in order to better confirm identity and convey trust to users.

Airbnb encourages renters to rate guests and guests to rate renters. Uber, the popular and fast-growing car hailing service, ensures that its drivers can rate customers just as surely as customers rate drivers. The goal here is obvious: create a symmetry of accountability and transparency between parties. Whether you’re driving or hailing a car – or renting or letting an apartment – you know you’re being rated and that those ratings are being shared. Accountability and transparency cut both ways.

Reputation system

Startup TrustCloud aims to empower the social economy by developing a portable reputation system for the Internet.

The company calculates a user’s reliability, consistency and responsiveness by measuring his social presence across other sites, including Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and eBay.

Maintaining trust and safety is critical for businesses built on peer-to-peer exchanges. As the sharing economy grows, so does the importance of systems to verify user identity, build community and otherwise support trust and safety.

Being able to create trust will be a game changer for society.

Reputation capital

Rachel Botsman explores the currency that makes systems like Airbnb and Taskrabbit work: trust, influence and what she calls “reputation capital.”

Technology enabling trust between strangers – social currency and reputation capital.

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In the sharing economy building trust is key — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/rsv

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