Impact on Shared Economy
Post the 2008 recession, one of the mega trends that gained popularity and traction with technology being the backbone is Shared and Gig Economy. A number of companies notably Uber, AirBnB, Ola, Amazon, Oyo,Innov8, built a fortune on this idea that in a world scarce of resources and underutilized assets, it would work the best to share them across customers. The concept became famous because the end customer could also witness the costs going down. Uber Pool could reduce the cost of travelling by a cab on a single commuter by over 40-50%. Similar can be said about the Co-Working spaces which effectively reduced the high real estate costs on Early Stage Startups. Gig economy achieved a similar feat where the Startups and Early Stage companies could reduce the spend on human resources by not having fixed resources and hiring a number of employees on a short-term basis. The freelancers could get opportunities by working across a number of companies on a short-term basis and getting much skill and exposure without long term commitments.
The post Covid-19, according to me, can majorly impact this megatrend. The masses can become hesitant to use the resources that are shared with people they do not know. The proof of this is one of the articles where I read that a number of people are more likely to use their personal vehicles rather than public transport or cabs for commuting to their offices post Covid-19. Though, this can be a turnaround point for the much-affected auto sector in India as demand for personal vehicles and their maintenance would increase. The question remains unanswered as to how these companies which were on a track to make a fortune based on Shared economy would adapt. Would technology here again play the key aspect, revamp it and improve the contact tracing systems or the businesses which were using these shared platforms will change? One change could be the restaurants that rely on Zomato, Swiggy’s aggregator platform for delivery can make some investments to develop their own delivery channels. This no doubt will not result in economies of scale and is far-fetched for small scale restaurants that compete only on Cost Leadership. The ones that majorly compete on quality and customer retention can definitely boost their customers’ loyalty and trust towards them. The customers would know that the delivery boy is coming from the restaurant which they already have trust upon.
What do you think can be the other major transformations?
Global Category Buyer | Caterpillar Inc. | Ex- GEP | Category Management | MBA
4 年I think it is very well articulated article and extremely relevant in these times. The point here being gig economy and these start ups that have come up have 1 backbone - Technology. Technology by it’s own nature is all about ‘Adaptation’. So talk about recent news of uber installing face sensors in UK to ensure driver wears mask all the time or plastic barriers, or use of thermal screenings - there has to be a way out. Having said that, definitely the way of life will change. Trust issues will be there. But here I think the role of marketing comes into play, trust has to be reinstated in Consumers Mind. Afterall, the same uber taught Women in ‘unsafe delhi’ that it can safely drop them home at 2am in night, the same zomato made us order from restaurants whose names we never heard, the same airbnb made us believe we could stay with strangers - Something we would otherwise never do in the old so called ‘normal’ world. :)
Senior Consultant & Project Lead | Talent and Organization | People Analytics | Change Management
4 年Long term Car rental services will see a huge growth post-covid. The employees who were using cabs or public transport will prefer private car. Even government and private corporations will introduce tenders to provide car rental services for their employees. Zoomcar, Revv are already in this business, however Ola, Uber can also try their hands in such market.