Collaborative consumption is a way for people to share things, either temporarily or permanently, by getting or giving valuable resources or services. This can happen directly between people or with the help of someone else. It is often linked to the idea of the "sharing economy." This practice has been around for a long time, with examples including flea markets, swap meets, garage sales, car boot sales, and second-hand shops. In 2011, collaborative consumption was named one of Time magazine's 10 ideas that will change the world.

Definition

In 1978, Marcus Felson and Joe L. Spaeth wrote the first detailed paper explaining collaborative consumption in the modern era. This idea gained new interest because of technology, especially Web 2.0, mobile devices, and social media.

A study from June 2018 used research methods to track how scholarly work on collaborative consumption developed over time. It found that the term "collaborative consumption" first appeared in 2010 in a book by Rachel Botsman and Juliet Schor titled What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. Research on this topic grew quickly after 2014. Scholars grouped their work into four areas: 1) exploring and defining collaborative consumption; 2) studying how people behave and how marketing works; 3) examining shared systems and mutual use; and 4) looking at sustainability in the collaborative economy. The fourth area had less research compared to the others, but it became more important after 2017.

Collaborative consumption is different from traditional consumption. In traditional consumption, people only receive goods or services and do not give anything back. In contrast, collaborative consumption involves people who both receive and provide resources. These people are called "obtainers" because they can switch between being a provider and an obtainer, depending on their needs.

Rachel Botsman, co-author of What's Mine Is Yours, describes collaborative consumption as "traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping made possible by technology and peer communities." She explains that this idea changes not only what people use but also how they use it. For example, power drills are often unused because people only need the hole, not the drill itself. Sharing tools like this can help reduce waste. Another example is cars, which cost at least $8,000 per year to own and operate, even though they are parked most of the time.

Botsman identifies three systems that support collaborative consumption:
1) Distribution markets, where people share unused items (like tools or cars) with others who need them.
2) Collaborative lifestyles, where people share intangible resources like money, skills, or time.
3) Product service systems, where people use products without owning them, such as renting instead of buying.

These systems create new job opportunities, allow people to earn money directly from others, and reduce the harm to the environment. At TEDGlobal2012, Botsman said that trust across different platforms would be a key part of the new collaborative economy. She explained that trust and respect from others could change who has power and influence in society.

Importance

The sharing economy is based on using things that are not used often, whether they are physical items or services. When people share these unused items or services, it helps reduce waste and the use of resources.

There are two main types of collaborative consumption:

• Shared access systems: These are systems where people can temporarily use items or services, either for free or by paying. Systems run by companies, like Car2Go, Zipcar, or Bixi, are not shared access systems because they do not let individuals share resources. However, websites where people rent items from each other or libraries that let people borrow toys are examples of shared access systems.
• Redistribution systems: These are systems where people can give or receive items permanently, either for free or by paying.

Looking only at redistribution systems, a 2016 report called the "Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index" found that about 85% of people in Canada bought or sold used items through secondhand markets, donations, or trades, either online or in person. A 2015 report said the secondhand market in Canada was worth about 230 billion dollars.

In addition, for-profit shared access systems, often called "commercial peer-to-peer mutualization systems" or the sharing economy, were worth 15 billion dollars in 2014, 29 billion dollars in 2015, and are expected to be worth 335 billion dollars by 2025.

Some experts believe that the sharing economy, especially when people work together to create goods or services, could change how the economy works and help reduce inequality around the world.

Consumer two-sided role

Collaborative consumption changes how businesses and people work together because it gives consumers two roles: one where they receive resources and another where they share resources. In the past, companies sold products and services to customers, but now they also ask customers to help create or share resources. According to Scaraboto, this means people can switch between being users of resources and people who provide resources, working together to make or share things. Collaborative consumption happens in systems where people can both give and receive resources. These systems include examples like Kijiji, Craigslist, and eBay. In these systems:

• Obtainer: A person who gets a resource or service from another person (the provider) or through a helper, such as a company. The helper can be a business (like IKEA selling used furniture) or a group that does not make money (like The Salvation Army).
• Provider: A person who gives a resource or service directly to someone else (the obtainer) or through a helper, such as a business or group that does not make money.

Through collaborative consumption, people help create value by sharing resources, even if they are not formal workers or employees. Businesses also use private resources and skills from individuals, not from friends or family, to reach goals. The ways people can get or share resources include:

• Obtainment: Buying used items, receiving gifts, trading items, borrowing resources for a short time, using items that are fixed or improved, and sometimes using recycled items.
• Provision: Selling used items, giving gifts, trading items, sharing resources for free or in exchange for something, and sometimes recycling items.

People can share resources directly with others, with or without help from a middle person (like Kijiji, Freecycle, or Yerdle). In these cases, the people involved decide the rules of the exchange. Other middle people, called mediators, set the rules and take a share of the value from the exchange. Examples of mediators include second-hand stores where people can donate or sell items, and companies like Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, or Lending Club. When mediators are involved in exchanges between people, it shows a type of teamwork called sourcing collaboration and trading collaboration.

Collaborative intensity

Collaborative consumption can be thought of as a system that moves resources between people, with different levels of teamwork. These levels are:

• Pure collaboration (C2C, or Consumer-to-Consumer)
• Sourcing collaboration (C2O, or Consumer-to-Organization)
• Trading collaboration (O2C, or Organization-to-Consumer)

An organization that helps connect people can be either for-profit or not-for-profit.

Pure collaboration happens when people directly exchange resources or services without an organization managing the exchange. For example, online platforms like classified ads or auction websites let consumers directly give or receive resources or services. These platforms act as intermediaries but are not "mediators" because people decide the terms of the exchange themselves. Mediators, however, influence how exchanges are arranged. For example, Amigo Express is a website that connects drivers and riders, but it does not let them contact each other directly. Instead, both drivers and riders must pay the website separately to provide or receive a ride. This makes Amigo Express a mediator. In contrast, TheCarpoolingNetwork allows users to set their own terms, so the website acts as a facilitator, not a mediator. Most C2C websites are free to use, but some charge for special features (like Craigslist). Others ask for donations to cover costs (like The Khan Academy).

Sourcing collaboration uses new technologies to create new ways for organizations to work with people. These organizations do not provide resources or services themselves but instead rely on people to do so. They use the internet to connect people and make exchanges more efficient. For example, sourcing collaboration might involve selling used or repaired products through companies, but the products come from people who no longer want them. Other examples include people giving items to antique shops or using Amazon’s Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) program. Online platforms like Uber, Instacart, TaskRabbit, and Airbnb also use sourcing collaboration by letting people complete tasks or provide services for others. Resources can also move through multiple organizations before reaching the person who needs them. For example, a car sold by one person might be resold by several dealers before being bought by another person.

Trading collaboration is the opposite of sourcing collaboration. It happens when a person receives a resource that was originally provided by another person and then shared through an organization. The organization connects the person who provided the resource (the provider) with the person who receives it (the obtainer). The obtainer usually pays for the resource, and some or none of the money may go back to the provider. In traditional buying, resources come from companies, but in trading collaboration, the resource comes from another person. For example, trading collaboration happens when a person buys a used iPhone from Best Buy that was previously given to the store by another person. It also happens when a person receives grocery delivery through Instacart, where the delivery is done by another person.

Types

Collaborative consumption is an economic system where people share access to products or services, offering alternatives to owning items individually. This idea comes from people wanting more control over their choices instead of feeling forced into buying too much.

This model is used in online platforms like eBay and in new areas such as lending money between people, renting homes or rooms, sharing travel experiences, helping with tasks, giving travel advice, and sharing cars or buses.

In 2010, Botsman and Rogers found three types of systems in collaborative consumption: product-service systems, redistribution markets, and collaborative lifestyles.

Product-service systems let people rent or share items they own through online marketplaces. For example, BMW’s "DriveNow" allows users to rent cars by the minute without buying a car. Many traditional companies now also offer similar sharing services.

Redistribution markets involve passing used or unwanted items from one person to another. This is different from methods like reducing, reusing, recycling, or repairing waste. Some platforms, like The Freecycle Network or Zwaggle, give items for free. Others, like Swap.com, let people trade items, while eBay, Craigslist, and uSell allow people to sell items for money.

Collaborative lifestyles use community-based platforms to share services or resources like time, money, or skills. People with similar needs or interests join together to exchange non-physical items. Mobile technology has helped these systems grow by making location-based sharing and real-time communication easier.