It’s a sign that the collaborative (or sharing) economy has reached the next stage of its maturity, given the number of research studies that have been conducted through the past year aiming to get a clearer picture of who, how and why people are participating in different services and activities. To get a sense of where there are both consistencies and inconsistencies data, and understand the big picture insights across the research, we have put together a snapshot summary of the most important findings from seven key studies conducted in 2013-2014.

1. 2013-2014 RESEARCH REVIEW
Key findings across ‘sharing/collaborative’ economy studies
December 2014

2. STUDIES REVIEWED
• THE NEW CONSUMER AND THE SHARING ECONOMY - HAVAS WORLDWIDE, MAY 30, 2014
http://www.slideshare.net/HavasWorldwide/havasww-new-consumer-and-the-sharing-economy
• IS SHARING THE NEW BUYING - NIELSEN, MAY 28, 2014,
http://www.nielsen.com/content/corporate/us/en/insights/news/2014/is-sharing-the-new-buying.html
• SHARING IS THE NEW BUYING - VISION CRITICAL, MARCH, 3 2014
http://www.visioncritical.com/blog/sharing-is-the-new-buying
• THE SHARING ECONOMY: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE - LEO BURNETT, NOVEMBER 2014
http://humansbeing.leoburnett.com/leo-burnett-sheds-light/
• THE EMERGING COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY IN AUSTRALIA - VISION CRITICAL, OCTOBER 2014
http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2014/10/14/collaborative-economy-is-growing-in-australia/
• MAKING SENSE OF THE UK COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY - NESTA UK, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/making-sense-uk-collaborative-economy
• THE SHARING ECONOMY: HOW WILL IT DISRUPT YOUR BUSINESS - AUGUST 2014
http://pwc.blogs.com/files/sharing-economy-final_0814.pdf

3. THE NEW CONSUMER AND THE SHARING ECONOMY
HAVAS WORLDWIDE, MAY 30, 2014
The Havas study surveyed 10,574
people in 29 markets to determine
people’s feelings about
consumerism in relation to both
economic growth and personal
happiness.
http://www.havas.com/insights/studies/actualites/the-
new-consumer-and-the-sharing-economy

4. HAVAS STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:• Usage
– 46% of people prefer to share things rather than own them
– 28% of respondents currently belong to a sharing service
• Motivation for sharing
– Saving money
– ‘Feeling active and useful’
– Reducing consumption/carbon footprint
– Moving away from hyper-consumption
– Supporting individuals and or small/independent companies
• Types of assets
– Appliances (48.5%), bicycle sports equipment(41.5%) and electronics (26.5%) are the favoured
items to be rented out to strangers by respondents, versus more personal items such as clothing
(17%), cars (%) and homes (15.5%).

5. IS SHARING THE NEW BUYING?
NIELSEN, MAY 28, 2014
Nielsen polled more than 30,000
people in 60 countries to identify
who is interested in participating in
collaborative or sharing activities,
and what products and services
they are willing the share.
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2014/is-
sharing-the-new-buying.html

6. NIELSEN STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Usage
– 68% of respondents are willing to share or rent their personal assets for financial gain.
– Of those willing to share or rent assets, Millennials are most likely to participate (35%), but older
consumers represent significant percentages as well: Generation X (ages 35-49) with 17% and
Baby Boomer (ages 50-64) respondents with 7%.
– 78% of Asia-Pacific respondents are willing to share their own goods, and 81% are willing to rent
from others. This makes Asia-Pacific respondents the most likely to share, compared to other
regions.
• Types of assets
– Electronics (28%), and power tools (23%) are the most favored goods for sharing
– 26% of global respondents are keen to share their skills and time in the form of lessons or services

7. SHARING IS THE NEW BUYING
VISION CRITICAL, MARCH 3, 2014
Vision Critical partnered with Crowd
Companies to survey 90,112 people to
determine market behaviour towards
the sharing economy in three markets:
US, Canada and the UK, with the aim of
discovering where opportunities lie
for traditional businesses.
http://www.visioncritical.com/blog/sharing-is-the-new-
buying

8. VISION CRITICAL STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Usage
– 23% of the US and UK population, and 25% of Canadian population are ‘neo-shares’ (they have
used emergent sharing services like Etsy, TaskRabbit, Uber, Airbnb in the last 12 months)
– 16% of the US and Canadian population, and 29% of the UK, are ‘resharers’ (they have bought or
sold pre-owned goods online through eBay and Craiglist in the last 12 months)
• Motivations
– Convenience
– Better price
– Better product/service quality
– Couldn’t find elsewhere
– Recommendation by others
• Types of Assets
– Pre-owned goods (34%), custom products (9%), personal services (8%), accommodation (7%)

9. SHARING ECONOMY: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
LEO BURNETT, NOVEMBER, 2014
Leo Burnett polled 4,000 adults aged
18-69 to determine how Americans
perceive, and participate in, the
sharing economy.
http://humansbeing.leoburnett.com/leo-burnett-sheds-
light/

10. LEO BURNETT STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Awareness
– 9% of the respondents have heard of the sharing economy and are very familiar with the concept
– 19% have heard, and know something, about the sharing economy
• Usage
- 52% of respondents think that people would rather own than share, if they can afford to
- Top sharing behaviours engaged in by more than 50% of Americans include traditional methods of
sharing (looking something on Wikipedia, going online to seek feedback on brands, donating items to
charity, buying food from a farmers market, lending an item to a friend or neighbor to use
temporarily, renting a movie from Netflix), coupled with more established digital methods.

11. LEO BURNETT STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Motivations for sharing:
– Sharing helps the needy
– Sustainability and the collective good
– Less is virtuous
– Convenience and practicality
– Saving and making money
• Barriers to sharing:
– Perceptions of risk
– Joys of ownership
– Inconvenience
– Pro-consumerism
– Owning=status

12. THE EMERGING COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY IN AUSTRALIA
VISION CRITICAL, OCTOBER 2014
Vision Critical partnered with
Collaborative Lab and Nine!
Rewards to survey 1,000 people to
determine awareness and
participation in collaborative
economy services in Australia.
http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2014/10/14/
collaborative-economy-is-growing-in-australia/

13. VISION CRITICAL STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Awareness
- 14% of respondents have heard of the term ‘collaborative economy'.
- 61% awareness of collaborative economy services in Australia; Uber has 27% awareness, Airbnb
has 20% awareness.
• Usage
- 53% of respondents have participated in some form of collaborative economy in the last year.
- 63% plan on participating in some form of collaborative economy activity in the near future; 36% of
this number is interested in trying transport related services and 36% in accommodation.
• Types of Assets
- Verticals participated in are: carpooling (34%), house swapping (22%), p2p goods rental (22%)

14. • Motivations for sharing:
- Saving/making money
- Trying out new services
- Convenience
- Desire not to own
- Values of the collaborative economy
• Barriers to sharing
- Insufficient knowledge of how to get started
- Don’t know any users-social proof
- Concerns about scams or fraud
- General trust issues
- Don’t trust reliability of providers/sellers
VISION CRITICAL STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:

15. MAKING SENSE OF THE UK COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY
NESTA, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014
Nesta surveyed a nationally
representative sample of 2,000 UK
adults about their participation in
collaborative activities
across a selection of sectors.
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/making-sense-uk-
collaborative-economy

16. NESTA STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Usage:
- 25% of the population have taken part in the collaborative economy (internet-enabled) over the
last year
- 64% of the population have taken part in collaborative activities (internet-enabled or not) over the
last year
• Barriers:
- Potential privacy and safety risks
- Don’t trust strangers
- Concerns about time needed to learn about how new platforms work
• Types of Assets
- Top 3 areas where collaborative activity is occurring are: clothes and accessories (8%), media
(10%) and household goods (7%)

17. THE SHARING ECONOMY, HOW WILL IT DISRUPT YOUR BUSINESS
PwC, AUGUST 2014
PwC Megatrends report estimates the
financial growth of the space.
http://pwc.blogs.com/files/sharing-economy-
final_0814.pdf

18. PwC REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
• PwC determines total revenues for the five most prominent sharing economy sectors –
peer-to-peer (P2P) finance, online staffing, P2P accommodation, car sharing and music/
video streaming – could rise to around £9 billion in the UK by 2025, up from just £0.5 billion
today.
• Globally, revenues from these sectors could hit $335 billion by 2025, up from $15bn today.

19. SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS:
1. It is not a Gen-Y thing: Sharing services are not just for the young, but rather show strong and growing
adoption across generations on both the supply and demand side.
2. Trust and inconvenience are biggest barriers: The most common barriers to sharing are trust in
strangers and the perceived inconvenience of learning how to use a new platform.
3. Definition confusion: People have a limited understanding of what the “sharing economy” really means
and are unclear around what services are included and not included.
4. Willingness vs. usage: Most studies focus on attitudes around sharing such as willingness to share
something versus actual usage on sharing platforms. More studies should be done to measure actual
metered data.
5. Aggregate lens: Most studies are typically aggregated at a country level but lack some key classifications,
such as urban vs. suburban awareness and usage, to give important context.
6. Private vs. public networks: People are still more comfortable sharing with people they know/have a
strong connection with, and are for example lending money to family or loaning items to neighbours
without the support of a tech marketplace. There is still a behavioral shift to go from ‘private’ forms of
sharing to tech-enabled public sharing platforms.

20. SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS:
6. Motivations: While the reasons people are using different services can vary across sectors, saving
money, convenience and value are common drivers overall.
7. Most shareable items: People are most comfortable sharing smaller-ticket physical items such as
tools, appliances, sports equipment, which may be because they are easy to transport, and there is lower
risk.
8. Big & getting bigger: The financial value of the sharing economy is expected to grow in size
significantly over the next five to 10 years, however there is still a lack of conclusive research around the
nature of its contribution to the global economy.

21. WHAT RESEARCH NEEDS
TO BE DONE?

22. RESEARCH STUDIES NEEDED:
• PROVIDER MOTIVATIONS: Research should be done to determine the motivations of providers
(such as hosts, drivers, taskers) participating in the collaborative economy and the income being
generated to get a better sense of the shifting nature of ‘work’.
• VERTICAL REFERRAL: A study looking into the referral behaviours between different verticals
would contribute to an understanding of where participation in one type of sharing economy service
lowers the barrier to participation in another.
• CUMMULATIVE IMPACT: To get clearer sense of impact of this activity on the economy,
environment and communities, further research should be conducted to study metrics such as
income generation, community connection and local economic impact across different services
(beyond a single marketplace point of view).
• DISRUPTION OR DESTRUCTION: To gain a more accurate picture of industry disruption over new
market creation, a study should look into the market share of collaborative economy services in a
specific industry. Specifically, how much new value is being created against how much is being taken
from incumbent players.

23. THANKS@collcons
hello@collaborativelab.com
www.thecollaborativelab.com