Collaborative Economy: Industry Stats

3D Graph

The following will have links, sources, and dates sorted in logical orders to find key stats that you’ll need to make decisions. Additionally, I’ll link to other listings and indexes that will provide further context.  My goal is to serve as an industry curator to advance our collective knowledge, research, and for my own personal understanding.  If you want an overview, with three business opportunities for corporations, read the full report on the Collaborative Economy Value Chain. Please leave comments with your stats and a URL.  I’ll be happy to add and credit you.

Scope: The sharing of goods, services, space, and money.
Updates: This page was last updated on Oct 25th, 2013.


Market Sizing and Economics:
Stats and data on overall market size, capacity, and impact on economies.

Market Capitalization

  • Market Cap of Industry: “Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $26 billion.” –  The Economist, March 2013
  • “UK Consumer earnings from the Sharing Economy totaled £4.6 billion from May 2012 – May 2013. For comparison, US sharers are estimated to make $3.5 billion in 2013. 64% of UK adults or 32.4 million now participate in the Sharing Economy. More than 1 in 3 UK adults have participated in car sharing (36%) with a further 39% who would consider it. 36% of those who participate in the Sharing Economy do so to save or earn money (top motivator to share). ” provided to me by Benita Matofska of The People Who Share, May 2013
  • I suspect the following quote is referencing Rachel’s quote:  “The sharing economy has an estimated $26 billion value, including online platforms that make it easy to do everything from renting out spare rooms in your home (AirBnb) to car-sharing (Zipcar), clothing swaps (ThredUP), and even sharing extra portions from home-cooked meals (Shareyourmeal, of course).” – Airbnb study, sourced in Fast Company/WSJ, May 2013
  • Forbes estimates “The revenue flowing through the share economy directly into people’s wallets will surpass $3.5 billion this year, with growth exceeding 25%.  At that rate, peer-to-peer sharing is moving from an income boost in a stagnant wage market into a disruptive economic force.” – Forbes Jan 2013
  • Valuation of Startups:  “Companies that provide access over ownership could generate $3.5 billion in 2013.  Consumer engagement in rent/lease/borrow business models is attracting attention from both venture capitalists and technology industry veterans.” –  CNBC, April 2013
  • Market Cap of Industry:  “According to an article by Jaime Contreras in MIT Sloan Expert, collaborative consumption is a potentially $110 billion market.” – MIT Sloan, Dec 2011.   Thanks to Marty Thompson for the link
  • People are also sharing money, and crowdfunding is on the rise: “Crowdfunding–the practice of raising funds from multiple individuals via the web–first emerged in an organized form in the low-investment environment of 2008, and has quickly grown into a multi-billion dollar industry projected to reach $5 billion this year, channeling funding to hundreds of thousands of ventures globally.” CrowdFundBeat, Oct 2013
  • There are many Airbnb properties in NY, chronicled here: “As of January 31, there were 19,521 unique listings in New York City on Airbnb” Hat tip Paul PapadimitriouSkift, Feb 2014
Money Movement: Key Milestones
While there are thousands of discrete transactions happening from acquisitions, funding, to deals, here’s a few capstones:
  • Lyft raises $60m. Techcrunch, May 2013
  • Airbnb raises $120m. Crunchbase, as of Sept 2013
  • Zipcar sold to Avis for $500m. NBC, Jan 2013
  • Google funds Uber $258m. Techcrunch, Sept 2013
  • eBay/Paypal buys Braintree (mobile payment system for Uber and Airbnb) $800m. USA Today, Sept 2013
  • Some of these above stats are also listed below, in greater detail.

Market Impacts to Revenue, Taxes, Waste, Loss, and Gain

  • Car sharing tax loss:  “States would lose out on a minimum of 3.4% in annual tax revenue, or $23.4 billion in 2010 dollars.” – Fortune Magazine, June 2013
  • “Hotels beware, Airbnb is eating into revenues, study finds: The study, conducted by Boston University’s School of Management, found hotels in one market took a .05 percent hit in total revenue for every 1 percent increase in Airbnb listings.” Biz Journals, March 2014
  • “Dmitri Vorik, president of Rainbow Cab Company in San Jose, estimates that Lyft, Uber and other ridesharing services have cut into his business by 30 percent”  San Jose.com, Oct 2013
  • Ride service costs:  “So does fellow ride-sharing company Lyft, although it does issue 1099²s for drivers who reach over $20,000 and 200 “donations” in a given year.” –  Fortune Magazine, June 2013
  • New data looking at the impact of Uber on Boston reports: “Uber Boston: $9M of Fares in 15 Months, Barely Denting Cab Market” and “Between its October 2011 debut in Boston and January 2013, Uber collected about $9 million in “gross fares” from rides provided by more than 500 drivers, a judge’s ruling revealed Thursday. That breaks down to $600,000 of revenue per month on average, before paying drivers their considerable cut. As a percentage of the city’s market for cab rides, that’s peanuts. In its investigation of industry corruption, The Boston Globe recently estimated that the Boston-area taxi industry generated $250 million in fares last year, or almost $21 million per month on average.” Xconomy, July 2013
  • Airbnb on Paris Hospitality Revenue:  “This framework of trust has unlocked huge value from unused bedrooms. ‘In the last 12 months in Paris, we’ve generated $240 million in economic activity,’ Chesky said.” – NYTread full PDF, July 2013
  • FlightCar disrupting traditional car rental:  “Zaparde also says San Francisco officials’ claim that FlightCar undercuts other rental car services isn’t accurate.  That’s because FlightCar’s services is 30% to 60% cheaper, because it doesn’t maintain or own any cars.  In other words, it isn’t undercutting rental car companies, because it has a totally different business (and business model).  What’s the impact?”  (Traditional rental car estimates of up to half of the $25 billion per year at airports, making them a major next battleground in the sharing economy.”  Forbes, July 2013
  • SF impact headline: “Airbnb Had a $56 million Impact on San Francisco:  Study.”  The story said that “$56 million in total was spent by Airbnb travelers over the course of a year in San Francisco.  That includes $12.7 million spent on renting that went to Airbnb hosts (not including the approximately 3% fee that Airbnb gets), plus $43.1 million spent on San Francisco businesses.  That includes $11.8 million on food and beverage, $10.8 million on retail, $9.8 million on services, $5.7 million on entertainment and $4.0 million on transportation.” – Forbes, Nov 2012
  • Uber drops “Cab” from name on threat of fines:  “Because Uber was allegedly running and marketing itself as a cab service, but without a permit, the company was threatened with fines, including $5,000 for every transaction it made.  The next day, the startup dropped the word “Cab” from its name.  So far, that has appeased local regulators.” – Fortune, Feb 2012
  • Airbnb host fined $2,400, via NY fines, New York Times, May 2013
  • Fines: “SideCar, Lyft and Uber, another ride-sharing service, were each fined $20,000 last fall by California authorities for operating taxi services without the proper permit, and SideCar has been subjected to threats and undercover investigations in cities such as Austin and Philadelphia.” – TIME, May 2013
  • “New York City officials are going after short-term rentals but only when they get complaints.  In 2012 the city did 828 inspections and issued 2,239 violations for short term rentals. This year, fines for repeat offenders go up to a maximum of $25,000.³ –  Forbes, Jan 2013

Advocacy and Lobbying

  • Peers.org launches on July 31st, 2013 with 22 members including Airbnb, Taskrabbit, Shareable and more. – Salon, July 2013
  • Peers.org assembles considerable signatures in legalization of Airbnb in hip LA neighborhood, Silverlake: “Within 24 hours, more than 3,000 people (90% Angelenos) signed on to support home sharing in Silver Lake. ” Peers.org Tumblr Account, Sept 2013
  • California’s Public Utility commission legalizes some form of car and ride sharing, this is a landmark move which influences other states. LA Times, Sept 2013

Market Drivers and Factors:
Stats and data on what’s causing these trends, multi-industry.  Read my post on these three factors.

  • Societal Factors:
    • Food sharing:  “40% of human food goes to waste.” – Inc Magazine, July 2013
    • Car Parking:  “The average motorist wastes a total of 2,549 hours circling the streets searching for a space, whether it is on the school run, the local high street or a supermarket or airport car park,” “Across the UK, it takes an average of six minutes and 45 seconds to find a suitable space but this is just the average, according to the survey by ParkatmyHouse.” – Collaborative Consumption via Telegraph, 2013
    • “By 2020, there will be 31 million members of car-sharing programs worldwide.” – Taskrabbit Slideshare, June 2013
    • Video:  “The Case for Collaborative Consumption” offers multiple stats in this TED video, by Rachel Botsman, 2011
    • A San Francisco BART subway strike left 400,000 stranded.  This resulted in “Ride-sharing apps such as Lyft, Sidecar and Uber [reporting] a spike in ridership for Sidecar 50% more drivers were on the road and there was a 40% increase in rides.” – Forbes,  July 2013
    • Car ownership in the USA has peaked in 2006, “But in examining trends between 1984 and 2011, an UMTRI study shows the rate of vehicle ownership on a per-person, per-household and per-licensed-driver basis actually peaked years earlier in 2006.” – Scientific American, July 2013
    • Next generation of workers born as digital natives: “By 2025, 75 percent of the global workforce will be millennials, says the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation ” stats on Intuit article on managing millennials, sourcing Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, Intuit.com, July 2012.
    • The millennials are tech enabled, but lack resources boomers have: “Frequent technological contact with friends, family, and co-workers. Keep in mind the internet was not yet invented when boomers were 30 years old” and “Buying a home is not possible for many millennials because of the job situation. Boomers flocked to the housing market in their 20s and 30s.” Policy Mic, 2013.
    • Dan Schawbel provides 74 stats about the millennial generation ranging from work, attitudes and behaviors. Dan Schawbel, June 2013
  • Economic Factors: 
    • “There are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average of 13 minutes,” says Chesky.  “Does everyone really need their own drill?”  New York Times, July 2013
    • Idle cars: “Private cars, on the other hand, sit idle 95% of the time” Techcrunch, Dec 2011
    • “The [market] share of new cars bought by Americans [aged] 18 to 34 dropped from 16% in 2007 to 12% last year, according to Lacey Plache, chief economist of Edmunds.com.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
    • Seoul, the “sharing city” of the world, outlines opportunity:  “If five percent of such resident-only parking lots are shared, it is equivalent to building new parking spaces for 1,862 cars and can save 23.3 billion won.” – Korea Times, Sept 2012
    • Seoul, the ‘sharing city’ of the world, outlines opportunity: “”It is said Seoul is short 15,000 rooms compared to the number of travelers.  If 1,000 households participate in the home-stay program, it is equivalent to establishing 20 hotels with 50 rooms each.  It is also a way for retired baby boomers to earn money by making their houses available.” –  Korea Times, Sept 2012
    • Airbnb is cost savings for tourists in San Francisco study:  “For Airbnb travelers, visiting was cheaper than staying in a hotel.  About 14% would not have visited if not for Airbnb.  In addition, those who did use Airbnb stayed longer on average 5.5 nights in the city compared to hotel guests, who stayed 3.5 nights.  Because they stay longer, the guests end up spending more in the city, the report found $1,100 in total, compared to $840 for hotel guests.  The average rate of an Airbnb property is $117 per night compared to $188 for hotels, the study found.” –  Forbes, Nov 2012
    • Average car used 1 hour per day, Future of Car Sharing, sourced on 2013
    • Poverty:  “The new American poor:  Four in five live in danger of it.”- CNBC, July 2013
    • Unemployment: “Unemployment Rate Still Above 10% in 27 US Metro Areas.” –  Wall Street Journal, July 2013
    • Human population forecasts:  By 2050 there will be 9.1 billion people on planet earth, Wikipedia, sourced July 2013
    • Unemployment of youth: “Nearly half of unemployed Americans are under the age of 34, and half of those who are employed are working part-time jobs, which don’t require a degree” – PolicyMic, August 2013.
    • Over a third of millennials are living at home, due to lack of jobs:  “When the recession began in 2007, 32 percent or 18.5 million of millennials–defined as 18- to 31-year-olds–had not left the nest. Today, it is 36 percent, or 21.6 million.” also, “A driving factor: declining employment. Last year just 63 percent of young adults in that age group were employed, down from 70 percent in 2007.”  The Daily Beast, Aug 2013
  • Technology Enablement Factors: 
    • 34% of humans are online, but with a growthrate of 566% growth rate World Internet Usage Stats, Aug 2013
    • 73% of Sharing startups have social features, enabling people to find trusted contacts to share goods and services. – Altimeter Research, June 2013
    • 53% of sharing startups have Facebook connect. – Altimeter Research, June 2013
    • Facebook has 1.15 billion users, by which many sharing sites are powered. – Facebook.com July 2013.
    • Mobile phones are common among many humans.  See ratios, such as China as 73 per 100 persons, US is 93, UK is 131, India 72. – World Bank, July 2013

Crowd Behavior and People Data:
Stats and data on consumer behaviors as a result of market drivers and factors.  The term “Consumer” is a misnomer, so I use “People” instead.

People Attitudes and Behaviors

  • “Adults under 35 are the most digitally savvy and, therefore, the most likely to have participated in sharing or renting online rather than owning.  Most people (77%) see the sharing economy as a great way to save money, but among those who have actually tried it, the plurality, 36%, said their motivation was philosophical, not financial.  Listing extra goods or a spare room online was seen as a way to help others and, for one in four, to promote sustainability as well.” – Fast Company/Wall Street Journal, May 2013.
  • People who share online, may share in the real world:  “78% of participants felt that experiences they’ve had interacting with people online have made them more open to the idea of sharing with strangers.” – Shareable Magazine, 2010
  • Consumer forecast of sharing:  “75% of participants predicted that their offline sharing will increase in the next five years.  Similarly, 62% of participants either share household items casually or expressed interest in doing so.” – Shareable Magazine, (which links to a full PDF of the study) 2010
  • Sentiment Study:  Ride and Car Sharing vs. Traditional Rental vs. Taxis.  Uber wins out and is highly “Loved,” Taxis “Disliked.” – NetBase Research, July 2013
  • Sentiment Study:  Airbnb vs. Traditional Hotels, Airbnb and OneFineStay “Loved,” – NetBase Research, July 2013
  • Sentiment Study:  Airbnb and Hipmunk vs. traditional travel booking sites.  Airbnb “Loved” over big guys. – NetBase Research, June 2013
  • Cookening.com, a website that enables homes to be like restaurants provided me with this data from a survey: “Question: What’s your main motivation as a host? Answers: Meeting new people 69%, Sharing my cooking skills 62%, Earning some extra money 31%”.  200 respondents of users and potential users, from Cedric Giorgi, CEO of Cookening.com via email to Jeremiah on Aug 12, 2013.
  • UK behaviors and attitudes: “In the UK alone, the sharing economy is estimated to be valued at £22.4bn according to research from community movement group, The People who Share. It found that 33 million Brits (65%) are already sharing, and a further 14 million (28%) would consider it. It further estimated that UK consumers currently participating in collaborative consumption benefit from £4.6bn savings and earnings.” Edie.net, August 2013.
  • A study was done on middle-aged Amsterdam citizens and their behaviors and attitudes around the sharing movement, “The overall results indicate that 43.8% would take part as a consumer, and 31.9% as a provider.” Collaborative Consumption, August 2013
  • There’s a wealth of information on Vancouver’s sharing, in this report, titled A report on sharing in Vancouver.

Financial Benefits for Sellers and Hosts, The “Empowered”

  • Dog services:  “Sabrina Hernandez, a student at San Francisco State University, charges $40 per night through Web site DogVacay to take care of dogs in her apartment.  She made an average of $1,200 per month this past fall.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
  • Car rental: “Dylan Rogers, a Chicago sales executive, makes $1,000 a month renting his little-used BMW 6 series on RelayRides.  He recently bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee and plans to also buy a Prius purely to rent, and estimates he could net $40,000 a year for his three vehicles.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
  • Home rental:  “Nikhil Balaraman of San Francisco rents out his city bike on Liquid for $20 per day, making $50 to $100 per month.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
  • Home rental:  “Average Airbnb Host In NYC Pockets $21,000 A Year” (and some up to $100,000). – Techcrunch, Jan 2012
  • Airbnb host need revenues in SF:  “About 14% had an annual household income below 14% and another 27% were between $40,000 and $70,000.  For these hosts, the extra income is very substantial.”  Additionally, “While 59% of Airbnb hosts are employed full-time, about 20% are freelancers, 12% are employed part-time and 7% are unemployed.  So, for those working freelance or part-time, Airbnb can help them stay in their apartment or home.  As a measure of that, a survey found that 42% of hosts used Airbnb money for regular living expenses.  Another 48% used the money for extra spending money. Separately, 56% of hosts said they used their Airbnb income for rent or mortgage.” – Forbes, Nov 2012
  • “Airbnb hosts made an average of $9,300 annually for listing a home and $6,900 for listing a private room or shared space.”  Hosts really use Airbnb to make ends meet.” – Forbes, Nov 2012
  • Getaround drivers:  “Meg Murray, a marketer at Getaround, said the company has more than 10,000 cars listed for rent on their platform, with the average active renter making around $350 per month, and one renter making as much as $1,300 per month.” –  VentureBeat, Jan 2013
  • Assumption model of total income possible is $41k a year.  “Renting her apartment out occasionally on Airbnb, she can make $667 per month or $8,000 per year.  Doing two to three tasks per day on Taskrabbit five days a week, she can make $2,000 per month or $24,000 per year.  Lyft told me driving part-time she could make $750 per month or $9,000 per year.  When not using her car, she can supplement income from Getaround at $350 per month and do as needed.” – VentureBeat, Jan 2013
  • Uber drivers:  “Bringing in upwards of $500 a day, a sum some cab drivers only make after a week’s work.” – Fortune, Feb 2012
  • Home based kitchens are becoming restaurants, enabling home cooks: “If you were determined enough and wanted to make two lasagna trays instead of one, you could certainly be making $50 a day, pretty easily,” Calas reasons to me, sitting in her dining room. “If you’re a mom, that’s $800 a month. That’s not insignificant to a family.” The Atlantic, August 2013

Venture Capital and Acquisitions:
Overview of investments, key new board members at companies, and high level exit data from acquisitions.

  • Venture Capital Funding:  Across 200 startups, nearly 37% have been funded at $29 million, on average.  Total funding across the 200 is $2 billion.  This does not include data from recent Lyft funding and additional pending Uber data. – Altimeter Group, Feb 2013
  • Data: Meet the top investors by frequency of the collaborative economy, both firms and individuals, by Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategy, 2013
  • Milestone Funding Events:
    • Airbnb, over $120m funding. – Crunchbase, July 2013
    • Lyft over $60m in total funding. – AllThingsD, May 2013
    • Uber over $55m in total funding. – Crunchbase, July 2013
    • Uber raises large round of $258 from Google Ventures with Valuation over 3B., Techcrunch, August 2013
    • Google invested $125 in LendingClub, peer to peer lending – NYT, May 2013
  • Boards:  Notable board member movement:
    • LinkedIn CEO and investor Reid Hoffman joins Airbnb as board observer, Greylock.com, July 2013
    • Lending Club obtains Lawrence Summers, 71st Secretary of the Treasury and former World Bank Chief Economist on BoD. – LendingClub.com, 2012
  • “Getting into the share economy was the reason Avis Budget Group CAR +0.39% last month chose to pay a whopping $500 million for Zipcar, despite the fact that the pioneering, rent-by-the-hour startup generated a paltry profit of $4.7 million over the past years.” – Forbes Jan 2013

By Vertical/Sector/Industry:
Specific data that don’t fit into the above categories, but are honed in on specific verticals, often supplies from specific startups. Please note, there’s also vertical specific information in the above sections that could easily fit in both areas.

Workforces on Demand

  • “Market Share:  1.9X compared to 2nd largest online workplace.”  Jobs Posted in 2012:  1.5 million.  Registered Freelancers:  3.1 million. – Odesk.com, July 2013
  • “1,000 new Taskrabbits are added each month.” – Taskrabbit Slideshare, June 2013
  • Elance stats: “3,426,190 Jobs Posted (Lifetime),  $3,727,071,739 Lifetime Value of Jobs Posted (in USD)³, Elance.com, July 29, 2013
  • On Taskrabbit: ” the company has received funding totalling $37.7m to date, and now has over 13,000 background-checked TaskRabbits in 14 US cities. But progress hasn’t been plain sailing. Last month Busque, 33, confirmed the company had laid off an unspecified number of staff.” The Telegraph, August, 2013
  • Stats shared from an oDesk study: “$1 billion+ has been spent on oDesk alone.  oDesk has more than four million registered freelancers today, and 2.6 million skills tests proving their expertise were completed in the last twelve months alone.  A long tail of skills is emerging In 2007 just four categories of skills represented 90% of spend on oDesk. By 2012, 35 categories represented 90% of spend. Almost 2,400 skills were listed on oDesk in the last twelve months and this number continues to climb. ”   oDesk study, August 2013
  • Stats shared from an oDesk study on US businesses hiring: ” More than half (58%) of businesses hiring on oDesk classify themselves as startups. The availability of “talent-as-a-service” is empowering startups everywhere, by increasing flexible access to the skills they need for growth.  Last year, startups in the West did the most hiring through oDesk ($104M) while the South came in a strong second ($63M), followed by the Northeast ($43M) and the Midwest ($22M).   oDesk study, August 2013
  • Crowdflower, with Amazon Turk, has 500,000 workers available on demand, 50% are from United States, with a wide range of workers across 190 countries.  Some are paid in dollars, bitcoins and other forms.  From Crowdflower Webinar, heard first hand, August 2013

Co-working, Office Sharing

  • “On average, four to five new co-working spaces open every single day.” – Taskrabbit Slideshare, June 2013
  • Liquidspace stats: “2,000+ bookable spaces available in 250 cities across the U.S.  20,000+ transactions per month.” – LiquidSpace.com, July 2013
  • Sharedesk stats:  “more than 1,500 locations in 65 countries.” – Pando Daily, July 2013

Hospitality Stats

  • “According to the survey, 80% of travelers are comfortable with the idea of renting someone else´s vacation home on a trip so long as the property meets their personal standards for a vacation stay and that someone is available to contact locally if needed. Additionally, almost one in three (31%) vacation property owners in the United States are eager to travel somewhere new for a change, but feel guilty not utilising their property and losing out on money spent to maintain it. Among these owners that feel guilt, almost half (47 %) would favor renting or sharing their vacation home in exchange for the ability to visit new places. ” Demeure study, Financial News, Sept 2013
  • “Tonight we have 140,000 people around the world staying in Airbnb rooms.  Hilton has around 600,000 rooms.  We will get up to 200,000 people per night by peak this summer.” Airbnb has 23,000 rooms and homes listed in New York City alone, and 24,000 in Paris. Worldwide, we have listings in 34,000 cities and 192 countries.”  New York Times, July 2013
  • Chinese version of Airbnb “According to Xiaozhu.com, its Series A investor Morningside has supplied nearly $10 million. Since its launch last August, Xiaozhu.com is booking 1,000 nights per day and its registered resources of over 30,000 rental spaces and 1,000 individual hosts are expanding.” SacBee, Aug 2013
  • Airbnb host generates, “but in leveraging his hard assets into seamless income streams, he’s generating $3,000 a month.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
  • “300,000 rooms were made available to rent globally via Airbnb in five years of development.” – Taskrabbit Slideshare, June 2013
  • Airbnb: “Last night 40,000 people rented accommodations from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries.” – The Economist, March 2013
  • “Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it 2.5 million of them in 2012 alone.” –  The Economist, March 2013
  • Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $9,300. – The Economist, March 2013
  • Airbnb:  “On New Year’s Eve alone, 141,000 people worldwide stayed at an Airbnb.  In single-occupancy terms, that’s almost 50% more than can fit in all the rooms in all the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.  To be sure, those figures still pale next to the entire U.S. hotel industry, which according to research firm STR, sold 1 billion nights alone between January and November 2012.” – Forbes, Jan 2013
Education
  • In a related way, online courses enable peers to self-teach each other, or be taught as massive scale, with or without traditional colleges, see this large collection of stats on Huffington Post by Vala Afshar, hat tip, Wendy Lea, August 2013.
Healthcare
  • Patients are sharing their time with doctors: “Since 2005, the percentage of practices offering group visits has doubled, from 6% to 13% in 2010.”  HealthLand, August 2013

Transportation, Car Ride Sharing Stats

  •  UC Berkeley studies found that one properly shared car reduces need for nine cars off road. –  Sharable Magazine, 2011
  • Stats:  “Last summer, when RelayRides was featured in TIME, the company had roughly 1,000 vehicles in its network.  After acquiring Wheelz, RelayRides boasted a marketplace with “several thousand cars in more than 1,500 cities in all 50 states.” – TIME, May 2013
  • “Ten-year-old carpooling.com has 3.5 million members and one million people using the service every month.  It’s the equivalent of 2,500 TGV trains without laying a track or building a train.” – TED, quoting Robin Grant, June 2012
  • “Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month.  Some make more than $1,000.³ –  The Economist, March 2013
  • FlightCar (parking and peer -o-peer rental):  “FlightCar is still operating at SFO. The company says it has been growing quickly, at a rate of at least 40% per month, since launching in February.  As of this past weekend, FlightCar has had 1,800 total listings and 2,000 rentals this month.  That’s up from 1,000 listings and 1,400 rentals in mid-June. FlightCar also began operating at Boston Logan Airport in May.” – Forbes, July 2013
  • Lyft hits 1 million rides, 65k of the riders and drivers had mutual friends, launched in May 2011. Lyft.com, August 2013

Financial Services Stats

  • Peer-to-peer lending player, LendingClub:  “Loans funded to date: $2,138,108,325.  Loans funded last month: $158,063,125.  Interest paid to investors since inception: $188,685,650.³ – Source LendingClub data, July 27, 2013
  • “In 2012, 2.7 billion dollars were raised via crowd funding in the United States.” – Taskrabbit Slideshare, June 2013
  • “Total amount lent through Kiva:  $456,754,450.  Kiva users: 1,461,395.  Kiva users who have funded a loan:  966,663.³ –  Kiva.org, July 2013
  • Kickstarter releases data showing $1b in funding from the crowd, – Kickstarter, March 2014

Notable Archives and Books:
Collection of key archives, books, and Slideshare collections.


Above is the research report I lead, complete with facts, data, charts, examples, and a listing of the startups.

Please leave a comment and URL with your stats, and I’ll quote and credit you. I’ll be updating this on a regular basis during 2013.

Photo used under creative commons attribution, by David Randomwire

51 Replies to “Collaborative Economy: Industry Stats”

  1. Hi Jeremiah,
    This is a really great archive of the data and insights into this new trend.
    Do you have any insight into how big the space sharing/reservation market in general is? For example, companies like PeerSpace in the US, Spacemarket in Japan etc.

  2. Hello Jeremiah, i’m doing my Masters thesis on the shared economy and i’m trying to find data set from the government such as OECD, ONS etc. but i can’t seem to find any, do you know of any sources of data sets, thanks

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