Sharing economy is still in early adopter phase

Airbnb. Lyft. Kickstarter. Quirky. Kiva. TaskRabbit.

The sharing economy is increasingly in the news. Those six companies are receiving a lot of chatter, as shown by Google News results for September 12, 2014:

Certainly, the sharing economy is a “thing”. But it’s not yet as mainstream as may come across in the media. For most of us, it’s still sort of a “toy” if you will. Cute that people would offer up their home for a weekend or give someone a ride in that empty passenger seat. But as YCombinator’s Paul Graham says:

Don’t be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy. In fact, that’s a good sign.

The sharing economy is in the early adopter phase. Which means it’s going to need some attributes to make the jump to mainstream adoption:

• Offering a “whole product” experience, not just satisfying a narrow slide of all needs
• A feature-quality-price blend that better satisfies existing jobs-to-be-done than do incumbents
• Evidence of value and satisfaction from others they trust (friends, media)

But the upside is terrific when the sharing economy is adopted. That topic is explored more fully in my new post: Harvesting Abundance in the Sharing Economy. It starts with the premise visualized below, and builds on that:

Interested in how we can dramatically increase supply and long tail options? Check out the sharing economy post.

I’m @bhc3 on Twitter, and I’m a Senior Consultant with HYPE Innovation.