Have you heard about collaborative economics? Certainly it must have already contributed to this trend, even without knowing it.

When you lend something to a friend, offer a ride or take care of children and animals for your acquaintances, you take action similar to that of many companies that are adhering to the concept of the collaborative economy: lending and sharing instead of accumulating.

Want to understand more about this subject? So read on and stay inside!

What is the collaborative economy?

The collaborative economy is a model in which services and goods are acquired in a shared way.

For example, instead of going to a building supply store and buying a screwdriver, you can rent the tool for a few hours in a specific app.

This way, you only have possession of the object for as long as you need to use it, and then give it back to others to use or rent. This economy model appears as an alternative to current consumption, replacing the accumulation without altering people’s quality of life.

Two good practical examples for this theme are Airbnb and Uber. These platforms are alternative forms of hosting and transport, respectively, in which the user pays for the service only for the time they use.

What are your principles?

In order for you to understand a little more about the concept of the collaborative economy, we indicate its main characteristic points. Check out:

Market redistribution

Redistribution is the principle of reusing, recycling or exchanging to reduce consumption. When an object is no longer needed, it is transferred to other people who need it, as is done on used and used car sales platforms. Like, for example, the services of the Enjoei website, where people can create their stores and sell objects they no longer use.

Unlike larger shopping sites, this type of platform creates a more personal environment, which influences sales. The pieces sold are redistributed to new interested parties with more affordable prices.

Collaborative lifestyle

Collaborative style is the model in which a division of skills, services or resources is developed for other people, such as raising money to finance projects. An interesting example is the Brazilian website called Vakinha, aimed at helping with expenses for parties, medications, operations and travel.

Sharing of services

Sharing of services is when the consumer or entrepreneur seeks to solve their problems and needs by means other than purchasing, opting for sharing or renting products or services. For example, sites where people sell or share books and texts they no longer use.

What are your main advantages?

Below, check out the main advantages of using the shared economy:

Lower costs

This type of economy helps to reduce expenses when compared to the traditional model, where new materials are produced at all times that will not necessarily be used.

A survey conducted by Folha de São Paulo compared the budget for parties in the collaborative and traditional models, and the result pointed out that the budget for the former is 25% cheaper compared to the latter.

Sustainable economy

In addition to the issue of avoiding large production costs, this type of savings still has benefits for sustainability, as it allows for sharing.

Sharing is the ideal way to deal with the planet’s finite products and resources, as many of them are non-renewable. By sharing these materials, scale production is reduced and less waste is dumped into the environment.

Accessibility of services

The collaboration between consumers and companies also ends up expanding the public’s consumption options, as people now have more access to products that, in the normal market, would not be within their budgets.

And for companies, in general, this model can extend the reach, allowing for a greater and closer relationship with customers, as well as attracting more consumers.