Online platforms for collaborative consumption

Collaborative consumption encompasses the sharing economy and is often coordinated on online platforms.

Collaborative consumption (CC) can be defined as the set of resource circulation systems, which enable consumers to both "obtain" and "provide", temporarily or permanently, valuable resources or services through direct interaction with other consumers or through a mediator. Collaborative consumption is not new; it has always existed (e.g. flea market, swap meets, garage sales, car boot sales, secondhand shops). But, it has regained a new impetus through information technologies, especially Web 2.0, mobile technology and social media. Collaborative consumption stands in sharp contrast with the notion of conventional consumption. Conventional consumption involves passive consumers who cannot or are not given the capacity to provide any resource or service. In contrast, collaborative consumption involves not mere "consumers" but "obtainers", who do not only "obtain" but also "provide" resources to others (e.g. consumers, organizations, governments). Overall, consumers' capacity to switch roles from "provider" to "obtainer" and from "obtainer" to "provider", in a given resource distribution system, constitutes the key distinguishing criteria between conventional consumption and collaborative consumption.

There are broadly two forms of collaborative consumption: (1) Mutualization or access systems: resource distribution systems in which consumers may provide and obtain temporary access to resources, either for free or for a fee. (2) Redistribution systems: resource distribution systems in which consumers may provide and obtain resources permanently, either for free or for a fee. Focusing on redistribution systems only, the Canadian-based Kijiji Second-Hand Economy Index 2016 Report, estimated that about 85% of consumers acquired or disposed of pre-owned goods through secondhand marketplaces (secondhand purchase and resale), gift-giving, or swapping, through either online or offline exchange channels. According to the Kijiji Second-Hand Economy Index 2015 Report, the Canadian secondhand market alone was estimated at 230 billion dollars. Besides, for-profit mutualization platforms, commonly referred to as "Commercial Peer-to-peer Mutualization Systems" (CPMS) or, more colloquially, the sharing economy, represented a global market worth 15 billion dollars, in 2014; 29 billion dollars, in 2015; and are expected to reach 335 billion dollars, by 2025.

Collaborative consumption is challenging to business scholars and practitioners alike because, as a concept, it induces a two-sided consumer role which goes beyond the classic notion of a buyer/consumer, who typically has no input in the production or distribution process. Companies have traditionally sold products and services to consumers, they now start pulling on their resources too through co-creation or prosumption. According to Scaraboto, this means that individuals are able to "switch roles, engage in embedded entrepreneurship and collaborate to produce and access resources". Collaborative consumption is characterized by consumers' capacity of being both "providers" and "obtainers" of resources, in a given "resource circulation system". A collaborative consumption systems means therefore a resource circulation system in which the individual is not only a mere "consumer" but also an obtainer who has the opportunity to endorse, if wanted or needed, a "provider" role (e.g. Kijiji, Craigslist, eBay), as follows:

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