The consumer powered revolution – The rise of the share economy

The rise of the share economy is quietly turning millions of people into part-time entrepreneurs, and disrupting old notions about consumption and ownership.

From social lending, peer-to-peer hotels and car sharing, the rise of the share economy is reinventing not just what we consume but how we consume. A movement that couldn’t have worked out before social media platforms.

The consumer powered revolution

Rather than customers buying products they borrow, rent and share instead. Millennials – Generation Y -, and many others with them, are thinking of new ways to do business.

Communal effort and the desire for a more sustainable and beneficial future are driving forces of the generation. With this spirit and an increasing distrust of old systems as a foundation, the peer-to-peer business model is becoming more and more common. They don’t buy newspapers – they grab and disseminate stories a la carte via Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard. They don’t buy DVD sets – they stream movies and shows. They don’t buy CDs – they subscribe to music on services such as Spotify, Napster or Pandora.

Given the social, group-think nature of Millennials and their inherent knowledge of the internet, it is no surprise that peer-to-peer has been growing, and evolving beyond goods exchange to revolutionize other business categories as well.

SHARE – Magazine – Germany

Volunteers of the Burda School of Journalism have developed a lifestyle magazine “SHARE”. It will be flanked by a blog and activities on Facebook and Twitter.

Is this a movement as important as when the web browser came out? Or is it just some small blip?

Short URL & title:
The consumer powered revolution – The rise of the share economy — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/mpi