The Alliances Form in the Collaborative Economy Battleground

Above: Screenshot from the story board on how corporations can fight or join the collaborative economy.

Taking a look back at last two week’s event show some interesting twists, the crowd is continuing to organize around getting what they need from each other, rather than from corporations. For the advanced corporations who’ve entered the collaborative economy,  they’ve formed partnerships to strengthen their own ecosystem.

 

[Business models and tempers change as the crowd gets what they need from each other –rather than corporations]

 

It’s important to state that this is a continuation of social business. The next phase of social business isn’t just sharing ideas, but the sharing of goods and services.  People can share goods and services with each other  (like Lyft, Airbnb, Yerdle and more)–without having to purchase from corporations. Notice the trend? Social media dis-intermediated corporate communications –and now the same trend is happening to goods and services.

One of my desires is to look for patterns, and I’m seeing these tension points arise as power shifts hands, here’s four distinct events in the last two weeks that highlight the energy in this growing space:

1. Taxi drivers unify and protest against peer-to-peer ride services.  SF taxi drivers who’re losing money from ride and car sharing services revolt, they picket and protest at SF City hall.  I’ve met Lyft drivers (regular citizens who will drive you around like a friend, for a tip) who have been yelled at, spat on, and called “Scab” by angry taxi drivers.   It’s impossible to stop this trend, as newly arrived UberX cars are driven by regular people, and have no distinguishing marks.  Read the analysis on brand sentiment comparing Uber vs Taxis –the crowd sentiment favors peer ride services over Taxis.
2. Yet California Public Utilities Commission proposes legal approval.  California lawmakers are discussing legalizing peer based car rides, even as SF Mayor engages with a sharing program around emergencies.  This movement seeks to legitimize peer to peer car rides, by applying some standards, and I’ll assert this is a direct way to obtain additional tax revenues.   Once this landmark battle is addressed, it will set precedent for home sharing, money sharing, good sharing, food sharing, and beyond.
3. Established Regis and Zipcar (by Avis) form a partnership.  Massive praise to innovative Zipcar (owned by Avis) and Regus (we’re a client) who’ve partnered up to allow customers of on-demand car sharing to now receive discounts at on-demand office spaces.  This bodes well, and I could expect to see other forms of on-demand food, workers, and hotels on demand emerge to suit this same vein.  This is a smart move for corporations to align with each other, offering additional value peer to peer sharing can’t.
4. Sharing startups form alliance, with big implications, called Peers.org.  Watch this group, Peers.org, closely.  I was able to talk to founder Natalie Foster, who was a former digital strategist on the Obama campaign (famed for grassroots online democracy), who shared with me the mission of this advocacy group, containing 22 collaborative economy startups like Airbnb, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Shareable, and more (Businessweek has more).  This group will enable people to post their causes online, and then generate global advocacy for the sharing revolution.  They also can help the startups themselves built a massive network that could content with corporations.

What this means to corporations:
The crowd isn’t going to wait for a corporation to get their social media center of excellence in place to get what they need, these disruptions are happening at the pace of the crowd’s desires. Corporations must quickly realize the following three insights:

• Energy is shifting from institutions to the crowd.  Angry taxi drivers, hotel lobbyists fighting Airbnb, and aggressive marketing highlight the friction as power, and money shifts from established groups to the crowd-based groups.   One reason I’m so focused on this movement is when I see customers move away from corporations, I run (not walk) to this disruption to uncover what’s happening, in hopes to help corporations catch up.
• A battle is being fought at individual city, state, and other levels.  The natural reaction of institutions, businesses is to fight it.  The pattern of attacks are illegal activity, unsafe, poor quality and unreliable.  As a result, the sharing revolution starts to self-organize their own advocacy (and potentially crowd based lobbying group) through Peers.org to self-organize.
• Innovative corporations who seek to thrive will collaborate.   Companies don’t need to fight this unstoppable internet movement, but instead can collaborate with this movement and make their products available on demand, motivate a marketplace around them, or provide a platform for customers to build on top of them.

The future could mean a connected collaborative economy ecosystem –disruptive to corporations. Do watch Peers.org, who could align the collaborative economy ecosystem into a single force.  With the 22 (and more coming) startups that are part of the collaborative economy,  they could standardize currency, profiles, reputations, and enable people to get homes, rooms for rents, office space, jobs, goods, food, and more from each other –rather than buying from traditional corporations.   If you want to learn how your corporation can be involved, read the full report on the Collaborative Economy, read a curation of stats, a list of startups, and a list of corporations who’ve moved in.