How technology has enabled the sharing economy to become a $ 100 + billion market
The leading “hotel” company that hosts the most travellers each year owns no rooms. The “taxi” company that transports the most people every day actually owns no vehicles. The principle is the same for house cleaning, parking and a growing number of other economic activities. Why have Uber, AirBnB, and Lyft all appeared in the last 10 years while couch surfing and carpooling has been around for decades?
The internet, instant communication or the democratization of the web is one of the reasons, but the real answer comes from search engine breakthroughs. The taxi company’s fight is the best example. Lyft, Uber or even Teo taxi are not about competing on price or the number of drivers and cars, the market share goes to whoever can provide the best offer of transport. It is not enough to find the nearest vehicle, it is necessary to strategically calculate the position of the empty cars and figure out which one will arrive in front of the customer the fastest.
So what exactly is it we are looking for that the search algorithms are trying to find for us? We are looking for excess capacity.
The fundamental value proposition of all these new sharing economy enterprises is not about creating the classic definition of wealth, but rather: to do more with what already exists! Indeed, as the Quebec expert in the sharing economy, Guillaume Lavoie, has been repeating for years in more than 250 conferences that the first opportunity to seize is the use of excess capacity. Without having to buy, build or manufacture, technology gives us access to a billion-dollar asset market. This is the sum of every unused car, warehouse, heavy equipment or even every employee who is looking for a job.
Do you have excess capacity?
Take a moment to do a quick calculation with us. Pick a random asset close by and calculate the excess capacity:
Monthly cost of assets x (1 – utilization rate) = Value of excess capacity
Example 1
Your 12,000 square foot warehouse costs you $ 6,000 a month, and you use 80% of the space this month. So you have: 6000 x (1 – 80%) = $ 1200 of excess capacity in storage per month.
Example 2
Your delivery truck cost $ 75,000 for 5 years. It makes deliveries 2 afternoons per week. So you have: 1250 (per month) x (1 – 20%) = $1000? loss of unused capacity.
Example 3
Your Director of Human Resources ($ 48,000 annual salary) works 25 hours a week with a specialized HR function and 15 hours with various administrative duties.
You can earn: 4000 x (1 – 62.5%) = $ 1500 monthly excess capacity of HR service.
That equals the potential of an extra $3700 per month of revenue. This happens if you share your resources and maximize your excess capacity by working with local businesses. Remember that this calculation represents an actual extra EARNING, on resources that were underused. You have no extra costs related to the extra income. You have the assets and we have the technology to list and find the right match.
Do the math!
Our team is here to help you to profit from surplus capacity or save money by gaining access to your neighbour’s resources.
