2014 Collaborative Economy Predictions on NBC (video)

Happy New Year all, it’s great to ring in the new year, right after the Dec 10th launch of my new company, Crowd Companies.   To kick start the new year, NBC asked me to go to their Silicon Valley TV studio for the Press:Here show hosted by Scott McGrew to give three predictions for 2014 around the collaborative economy. Here’s what I told them, which you can also watch above:

1. Uber will start to threaten Amazon, as they can deliver goods at local level. Uber can deliver at a local level, faster than 3-day shipping from an Amazon fulfillment center. It’s also worth noting that Uber’s major investor is Google, who has Google Shopping Express, Google Wallet, Waze, search, and more.
2. A major hotel chain will launch their own branded version of Airbnb.  Using white label marketplace software like NearMeCo, or Sharetribe, brands will start to build their own versions of marketplaces.  I predict a major hotel chain will do this first –franchising the crowd, just as they franchise business owners.
3. Scanning and printing of 3D objects will cause manufacturers to turn their heads.   Much how we saw the democratization of media with Napster and Torrent sites, we’ll start to see P2P file sharing of 3D printed items, as well as people start to experiment creating simple items.

And yeah, I’m wearing a tie, a rare occurrence, as I thought I’d start the near year spiffy. I was joined by Jon Swartz of USA Today, Michal Lev-Ram of Fortune, and our host Scott McGrew.  Also, a special thanks to Todd Defren, Alex Cohen and the SHIFT Communications team who were a huge help in the media outreach for Crowd Companies.