Sharing Economy and Big Data Analytics

4Digital Platforms and the Sharing Mechanism

I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away… it was already here. I just wasn’t aware of it yet.

Bruce Sterling

4.1. Introduction

Since the coming of the third millennium, the world has experienced a technological revolution under the “influence” of smartphones and tablets. The multi-functionality of these tools allows users to adopt new practices that previously required a fixed tool or the need to travel around.

These “gadgets” are intelligent multi-purpose devices. They act as digital office assistants performing some of the functions of a laptop computer. The benefit of these devices is time-saving, in addition to the downsizing of resource consumption by offering the possibility of sharing goods and services, such as car sharing or carpooling.

Uber, Ubereats and Airbnb are companies that operate in the collaborative economy and convey an innovative, non-traditional message, through a culture that favors use over ownership and sharing over undivided ownership.

The technical basis of these technological tools is digital platforms, which contribute massively to the digital economy. They connect service providers and customers, at a cost:

The term ‘platform’ is commonly used to refer to marketplaces, social networks, search engines, collaborative sites and dating sites, comparators, mobile applications and many other players. ...