At present, the wave of sharing economy is sweeping the world, platform enterprises continue to increase, sharing areas continue to expand, market scale is growing rapidly, a number of "unicorn" enterprises emerge, industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce, competition pattern changes rapidly. With the support of policies, the global sharing economy will usher in new development opportunities in the future.
1. Sharing economy becomes a hot spot
After the financial crisis, the global sharing economy developed rapidly, expanding from Europe and the United States to hundreds of countries in Asia Pacific, Africa and other regions. For example, by the end of 2015, airbnb has been operating in more than 190 countries and regions around the world, covering more than 34000 cities, with more than 2 million housing sources, benefiting more than 60 million tenants, with a market valuation of $25.5 billion. The success of leading enterprises has attracted a large number of entrepreneurs to join the field of sharing economy. The number of platform enterprises and institutions investing in the field of sharing economy has increased rapidly. According to the statistics of crowd companies, in the United States in 2010, there were less than 20 institutions investing in the sharing economy, and by the end of April 2015, it had increased to 198. At the same time, the amount of venture capital increased explosively. The rise of sharing economy has a great impact on the development of existing laws, policies and traditional industries, making it the focus of the government and all sectors of society.
2. Continuous expansion of sharing field
The global sharing economy is entering a period of rapid expansion. From the initial automobile and housing sharing, it has rapidly penetrated into many fields and market segments, such as finance, catering, space, logistics, education, health care, infrastructure, etc., and accelerated its expansion to more areas, such as agriculture, energy, production, urban construction, etc. In the future, everything that can be shared will be shared, and people's work and life style will change profoundly. As Ryan Gourley, the advocate of sharing economy, said, "sharing economy starts from a city, gradually expands to a region, then penetrates into the whole country, and finally forms a sharing world".
3 rapid growth of start-ups
The rise of the sharing economy has spawned a large number of Unicorn enterprises with a market valuation of more than $1 billion. According to CB insights, as of February 4, 2016, there are 151 private companies with a global value of more than $1 billion, including didi travel, Uber, LYFT, olacab, blablablacar and grab, which share cars Taxis, airbnb and Tujia networks sharing houses, Dropbox sharing network storage space, GitHub sharing open-source software, nextdoor sharing neighborhood information, Wework sharing office space, registration network sharing doctor consultation and appointment, financing circle and social finance providing financial P2P services, and delivery of life services Hero, helloffresh, hungry, instacart, etc. What's more, most of these companies have reached market valuation of hundreds of millions or even tens of billions of dollars in less than five years. With the expansion of sharing field and the continuous innovation of business model, more and more big companies will follow.
4. The competition pattern is not stable
The global sharing economy is still in its infancy, growing rapidly, competing fiercely, and has not yet formed a stable pattern. At present, only in some areas, a few enterprises with early start have gained certain first mover advantage, initially formed a considerable user scale and high market share, and started to establish a formed profit model. Generally speaking, the revenue sources of sharing enterprises mainly include intermediary fees, search rankings, traffic advertising, financial income, etc. However, for more fields and start-ups, they are still in the process of exploration and have not yet formed the ability of sustainable development. From the perspective of regional development, the United States is the leader in the development of sharing economy, but platform enterprises in Europe and Asia are also rising rapidly, and the global competition pattern is still in rapid change.
5. Clear policy orientation
With the development of practice, people's understanding of the significance of sharing economy is gradually deepened, and the attitude of government departments in many countries towards sharing economy has changed from wait-and-see, hesitation to clear support. In April 2012, the United States introduced the jumpstart our business startups act, which became the first country to legalize equity crowdfunding. In 2014, 17 city councils and 4 states in the United States passed the urban regulations on legalized private cars. By August 2015, the total number of cities and states legalized private cars had expanded to 54, which was still zero before 2014.
In September 2014, the UK announced that it would build a global center for sharing economy and a sharing economy capital in Europe. The European Parliament's Committee on industry, R & D and energy, together with the Committee on internal markets and consumer protection, issued a position paper on a new strategy for the digital market, emphasizing support for shared economic development. The governments of Ontario and Quebec, Canada, have begun to draft and revise the new legal framework, and have conducted preliminary research to support the development of the sharing economy. The Australian government is optimistic about the sharing economy. For example, in 2015, the Sydney government adopted the government led and enterprise operation mode to promote car sharing, and made the "car use sharing" plan an important part of the urban development plan "Sydney 2030"; New South Wales announced that it would legalize the sharing economy industry such as airbnb through legal means. The Korean government implements the government certification procedure for sharing economy enterprises, and provides financial support and publicity assistance to enterprises with outstanding contributions. It also plans to adjust relevant laws and regulations in 2016 to adapt to the development of sharing economy.
