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Collaborative consumption


Collaborative consumption encompasses the sharing economy.

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. in the form of flea markets, swap meets, garage sales, car boot sales, and second-hand shops), but it has regained a new impetus through information technology, 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 individuals may provide and obtain temporary access to resources, either for free or for a fee. Marketer-managed access schemes (e.g. Car2Go, Zipcar, Bixi) do not allow individuals to source resources, and are therefore not mutulization systems, whereas peer-to-peer renting sites or even toy-lending libraries, which allow consumers to provide resources, are. (2) Redistribution systems: resource distribution systems in which individuals may provide and obtain resources permanently, either for free or for a fee. Focusing on redistribution systems only, the Canadian-based Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index of 2016, estimated that about 85% of consumers acquired or disposed of pre-owned goods through second-hand marketplaces (secondhand purchase and resale), donation, or barter, through either online or offline exchange channels. According to the Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index of 2015, the Canadian second-hand 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.


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