Guest post by Tiffany Stelman
It would not surprise me if you had recently stumbled across the term “collaborative consumption” while roaming the World Wide Web. The Peer-to-peer movement seems to be making waves of technological revolution, harnessing the power of local communities in ways and in a scale never before possible.
Think about the abundant possibilities presented in an age where a staggering number of 2.3 billion people are online. Keep that piece of data in mind. Add to the mix the ability of consumers to monetize their own assets and the diminishing of transaction costs- and we’ve got here a new culture. While ensuring a consistent transaction experiences, marketplaces are resulting with a massive word-of-mouth and social marketing, sparking the irrepressible enthusiasm for p2p marketplaces. In fact, according to TaskRabbit, which recently took another $13M in funding, 75% of new users reach the marketplace by word-of-mouth.
These days, the Collaborative movement is fueled by hundreds of marketplaces enabling people with the same needs and wants to get together in a seamless local environment. Marketplaces wise, it seems as if there are new ones appearing every day, touching each and every economical vertical as we know it.
Everything, it seems, is becoming collaborative. From Airbnb to GetTable to Zipcar, we are swapping our cars, our homes, even our clothes with each other.
Here are a few examples of some innovative emerging marketplaces that are worth your attention:
- Your closet is a goldmine– Tradesy is a marketplace for women’s fashion. It turns women’s closets into currency. The startup aims to make it fast, easy, and safe for women to participate in online fashion resale for the first time. And, not surprisingly, they have secured $1.5M in their round A funding.
- Start your social wish list- With hundreds of thousands of products and more than 25,000 stores, Nuji is aiming to build the Internet’s department store. Not surprisingly it has been called ‘Pinterest with rewards’ as it combines the loved elements from Pinterest and adds rewards to that magical mix.
- Dog-boarding just got awesome- DogVacay is a community where dog lovers can connect with one another to find and provide safe, convenient and affordable ways to care for their best friend. This dog-loving startup has secured $1M in their seed founding.
- Marketplace for senior care- one of the favorite companies that participated in the 500 startups demo day is TenderTree. An online marketplace that enables to find in-home care, which covers services ranging from companionship and housekeeping all the way to dementia care and skilled nursing.
This roundup could take pages over pages of emerging, exiting and innovating marketplaces, each one prominent in its own unique way. Though the movement is a reinvention of old marketplace behavior, there is no doubt that the 21st century is giving it its own edge. With the explosion in the marketplace scene, it seems like collaborative consumption will continue to keep us fascinated.
Here is a snapshot of examples of collaborative consumption startups, originally published by http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/
Car sharing
Zipcar, GoGet, WhizzCar, Autoshare, Stattauto, Autolibre, Denzeldrive, Cambiocar,Zazcar, City Car Club
Car sharing (from big automobile brands)
BMW DriveNow, Volkswagen Quicar, Peugeot Mu, Daimler Car2Go
Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing
Whipcar, RelayRides, Drivemycar Rentals, Getaround, Tamyca, Buzzcar,Nachbarschaftsauto, autonetzer, SnappCar
Bike sharing
Velib, Bixi, Barclays Cycle Hire, B-Cycle, Call-A-Bike, CyclOcity, Niceride, HZ Bike,Social Bicycles, Cycle Chalao, Spinlister
Ride sharing
Zimride, Nuride, Liftshare, Jayride, goCarShare, Carpooling, Caronetas, DuckSeat,RewardRide, Avego, Amovens, Tickengo
Solar Power
Solar City, Solar Century, PretaSol, One Block Off The Grid, CitizenRe
Toy Rental
Dim Dom, BabyPlays, Rent-a-toy, ToyLib, Speelotheken, Brinquedoteca
Textbook Rental
Chegg, CampusBookRentals, Zookal, BookRenter
Art Rental
Art.sy, Artsicle, TurningArt
Fashion Rental
Bag Borrow & Steal, Fashionhire, Dress Vault, Love Me and Leave Me, Rent The Runway
Movies
Netflix, Quickflix, LoveFilm
General Online Rental
Getable, AnyHire
Peer-to-Peer Rental
Zilok, Rentoid, Ecomodo, HireThings, Rentalic, RentStuff, Open Shed
Neighborhood Rental
Share Some Sugar, Neighborrow, The Sharehood, Frents, Friends With Things, Hey Neighbor!
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Tiffany Stelman is a tech journalist who wrote for NoCamels. Before starting her own venture, she worked as a Community Manager at Yotpo, an e-commerce startup.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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