Collaborative Consumption - A Trend With Legs

The idea of monetizing your assets, especially those that you don't use very much, has a good deal of financial appeal. In a time of recession, it makes sense to bring in some more cash to help pay the bills.

Some sites have been around for a while, like Airbnb and others, that serve to facilitate the rental of assets like homes, cars, cottages, lawn mowers, etc. You name it. Airbnb has taken off globally, and others are following.

One of the issues with renting out personal assets is, of course, security. Many people have rented their homes, for example, only to have them trashed by the occupants. The same can happen with any asset.

Security is an issue, that's clear. However, there are measures the industry can take to mitigate such risks. Some lessons can be learned from eBay, which faces some of the same risks. For example, eBay started a rating system several years ago , where people who have used eBay are rated by those they dealt with according to their behaviour and comportment. In effect, what a rating system does is to create a virtual community, where the participants become "known" to each other and therefore merit greater trust.

Collaborative Consumption is a trend that will continue to grow. But it will require a focus on the creation of reliable and secure virtual communities in which they can function. For more on Airbnb, check this reference.