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Revenue of sharing economy platforms set to treble

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 24 May 2016
Sharing economy revenues are set to triple, reaching $20 billion globally by 2020, says Juniper.
Sharing economy revenues are set to triple, reaching $20 billion globally by 2020, says Juniper.

Sharing economy platform providers are likely to reap the benefits from an explosion in service uptake by the end of the decade.

This is according to Juniper Research's recent research, which says the sharing economy platforms such as Uber, Airbnb and TaskRabbit are to witness a trebling of revenues from $6.4 billion in 2015 to $20.4 billion by 2020.

The research found that the expansion of sharing services into emerging markets, coupled with growth in what are deemed more established regions, will drive a surge in returns for investors.

Uber is operational in over 70 countries, with more than a million drivers globally. SA was the first country outside of the US where three cities were operational at the same time.

Uber plans to expand into Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana this year and will focus on convincing traditional taxi drivers to work for the ride-hailing service.

Airbnb operates in 192 countries and in more than 34 000 cities. There are now more than 2 million homes available to book through Airbnb worldwide and more than 60 million people have travelled with the service globally.

South Africa is the largest market in Africa, with 9 400 homes available to rent on the service. Across the continent, there are 30 000 homes available. In Johannesburg alone, there are 1 000 listings.

Cape Town now has nearly 7 500 homes listed - catching up with cities like Sydney (12 950), Tokyo (9 345) and Madrid (8 493).

According to Juniper, providers of shared personal services such as TaskRabbit, Airtasker and the Japanese platform Anytimes will see their time-saving solutions prove popular with consumers striving to maintain a healthy 'work-life balance', it adds.

The research firm believes that a number of smaller and emerging shared economy industries are primed for significant growth over the coming 10 years - namely the shared delivery and manufacturing sectors.

"As such we have already witnessed large players in both the technology industry, and the shared economy itself, branch into these emerging sectors," says Lauren Foye, research analyst at Juniper.

"Shared manufacturing is one such emerging industry backed by major players, with significant scope for growth and development."

The rising popularity of the sharing economy is not only disrupting existing markets like transportation and accommodation, but it is also forcing governments to rethink regulation for these and other affected markets, says MaRS Solution Lab report.

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