English | EN A Warm Welcome to the P2P Platform Economy, Now Taking Off
Sep 18, 2014
Digital and business model innovations are taking over the market at an enormous rate, but the response mechanisms are sluggish, and in many cases erroneous. Thanks to the rise of the collaborative P2P Platform Economy (P2P: People-to-People, or Peer-to-Peer) nowadays every organization can be prey to new players, new technology and new solutions that dovetail amazingly well with actual market needs. Brian Chesky, the CEO of the highly successful digital Airbnb platform, says:
“We’re living in a world where people can become businesses in 60 seconds.”
Airbnb grew from the necessity of selling a night’s worth of air bed space to help pay the rent for a small apartment to a popular broker service that accommodated four million guests worldwide in 2013. Such disruptive digital and business model innovations confront the business establishment with a huge dilemma:
- How can we see such innovations coming?
- What can we do to stop them: imitate or outbid?
- What does it mean for traditional business: how long can we keep up?
Disruptive innovations can be slowed down and delayed by regulation. In August 2014, The FAA handed down an unwelcome clarification for flight sharing startups last week, ruling that private pilots could not publicly sell open seats on their planes. This ruling deals a potentially fatal blow to an emerging class of startups focused on bringing P2P-style sharing to the skies. The startups affected by this ruling, Airpooler and FlyteNow (aka UBERs for Tiny Planes), are obviously upset with the ruling and pursuing means of appeal.
Such P2P Platform Economy counter measures may happen to the irritation of the companies and directors, clients and customers, or a former European Commissioner, such as Neelie Kroes. In April 2014, she castigated the banishment of the digital taxi and transportation platform Uber from Brussels, the EU capital, as follows:
“I am outraged at the decision today by a Brussels court to ban Uber, the taxi-service app. The court says Uber drivers should have €10,000 fines for every pick-up they attempt. Are they serious? What sort of legal system is this? This decision is not about protecting or helping passengers – it’s about protecting a taxi cartel. The relevant Brussels Regional Minister is Brigitte Grouwels. Her title is “Mobility Minister”. Maybe it should be “anti-Mobility Minister”. She is even proud of the fact that she is stopping this innovation. It isn’t protecting jobs Madame, it is just annoying people!”
A warmer welcome to the P2P Platform Economy would have been barely conceivable.
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