Shel Israel, a contributor on Forbes.com makes 5 predictions for 2014. We couldn't help but notice that two of the five are regarding the growing sharing economy.
“3. More people and businesses will profit by sharing.
It’s being called the Collaborative Economy and the Sharing Economy, among other things. It is the general concept that in a world of constrained resources, more people and businesses will share the resources they do have, eliminating inefficiencies and improving revenues.
This new online-enabled Sharing Economy will allow some organizations and individuals to preserve the assets they have and others to be able to use those assets, for a fee.
This is already a huge trend. The big change is that in 2014, many of the world’s largest brands will embraced Sharing Economy practices. They will do it with new practices of their own and by partnering with innovative startups. They will not be taking these steps as a demonstration of goodwill, so much a desire to become more efficient and profitable during continuing times of constraint in economics and global resources.
This may be the biggest trend of 2014.”
As well as
“5. Trust will emerge as a global currency.
Converging factors such as the Sharing Economy and data collecting, will lead people to do business with other entities that they believe they can trust, based on the strength of their online presence and reputation.
This will be an incentive for people and businesses to behave in trustworthy ways. Government—at least on the Federal level—will remain another story.”
What do you think?