Access economy

The access economy is a business model where goods

and services are traded on the basis of access rather than
ownership: it refers to renting things temporarily rather
than selling them permanently. The term arose as a correction to the term sharing economy because major players in the sharing economy, such as Airbnb, Zipcar and
Uber, are commercial enterprises whose businesses do
not involve any sharing.[1][2][3]

generation began nding meaning and satisfaction in having access to things and interacting
with other people in the process.

2 Business strategy
The Harvard Business Review has argued that its important for businesses in this space to think of themselves as
being in an access economy. In a 2015 article called The
Sharing Economy Isnt About Sharing at All, authors Giana M. Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi write,

This model uses a technology platform, often accessed

via mobile phone, to connect suppliers willing to rent assets (e.g., apartments for rent or cars for transportation
services) with consumers. This may reduce the need for
intermediaries (e.g., organized businesses such as taxi
companies) between the supplier and consumer. Such
platforms may also be used to connect employers and laborers for short-term employment opportunities, bypassing traditional employment services rms and employeremployee relationships.

This insight that it is an access economy

rather than a sharing economy has important
implications for how companies in this space
compete. It implies that consumers are more
interested in lower costs and convenience than
they are in fostering social relationships with
the company or other consumers.

The number of persons involved in the access economy

is not easily measured. The access economy or ondemand economy poses regulatory and political challenges, such as dening the nature of the employment relationship and designing regulations to safeguard parties The article goes on to argue that a major dierence between Uber and its competitor Lyft is that Uber underto these transactions.[4]
stands the dierence: Ubers tagline is Better, faster and
cheaper than a taxi, while the tagline of the much-lesssuccessful Lyft is, Were your friend with a car.[3]
1 Economic model
The companies mentioned above represent technology
platforms that connect suppliers willing to rent their as- 3 Alternate names and related consets to consumers interested in temporarily using those
cepts
assets. For example, owners of real estate may oer an
apartment or bedroom for rent on a weekly basis, or the
owner of a car may oer taxi-like services. Mobile phone There are many related concepts and alternate names
being used for the access economy. They
applications are a typical method used to access the tech- currently[7][1][8]
include:
nology platform and connect the consumers and suppliers.
On-demand economy
As an economic model, the access economy suggests that
access to goods and services may become more desirable than ownership of them.[5] Steve Denning notes:[6]

Circular economy
Collaborative economy

The third thing that the Internet did was social. It created a generation of people who began doing something that cut to the heart of the
way society has been organized for several hundred years. These peoplemainly young
began preferring access to ownership. Instead
of planning their lives on the premise of acquiring and owning more private property, this new

Gig economy
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) economy
Reputation economy
Trust economy
1

REFERENCES

The validity of some of those is disputed. Michael lower compensation of the suppliers) worsen income inBauwens notes that companies such as Uber aren't op- equality? These are among the many questions the onerating by a peer-to-peer structure, saying:[9]
demand economy presents.[10][13]
A sharing economy, by denition, is lateral in structure. It is a peer-to-peer economy.
But Uber, as its name suggests, is hierarchical in structure. It monitors and controls its
drivers, demanding that they purchase services
from it while guiding their movements and determining their level of earnings. And its pricing mechanisms impose unpredictable costs
on its customers, extracting greater amounts
whenever the data suggests customers can be
compelled to pay them.
This is a top-down economy, not a shared
one.

4
4.1

Economic eects
Overview

The impacts of the access economy in terms of costs,

wages and employment are not easily measured. Various estimates indicate that 30-40% of the U.S. workforce
is self-employed, part-time, temporary or freelancers.
However, the exact percentage of those performing shortterm tasks or projects found via technology platforms
was not eectively measured as of 2015 by government
sources.[10] In the U.S., one private industry survey placed
the number of full-time independent workers at 17.8
million in 2015, roughly the same as 2014. Another survey estimated the number of workers who do at least
some freelance work at 53.7 million in 2015, roughly
34% of the workforce and up slightly from 2014.[11]

4.2 Eects on particular industries

One study indicated that ride-sharing company Uber is
signicantly replacing taxi services in parts of New York
City (NYC). Comparing the April to June periods in 2014
versus 2015, Uber pickups in NYC rose by 6 million
(from 2 million to 8 million), while Green cab pickups
rose by 1 million and Yellow cab pickups fell by 4 million.
Ubers impact was the most signicant in Manhattan.[14]

5 See also
Access (economics)

6 References
[1] What is the right name for the sharing-economy?".
[2] The Access Economy Or The Sharing Economy?".
[3] The Sharing Economy Isnt About Sharing at All. Harvard Business Review. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2015-0711.
[4] The Economist-Workers on Tap-January 2015
[5] The Access Economy. triplepundit.com. Retrieved 13
July 2015.
[6] Denning, Steve (2014). Three Strategies For Managing
The Economy Of Access. Forbes. Retrieved 13 July
2015.

At the individual transaction level, the removal of a higher [7] The Rise of the Gig Economy.
overhead business intermediary (say a taxi company) with
a lower cost technology platform helps reduce the cost [8] Collaborative Economy: A Transformative Lens, not a
Start-up Trend.
of the transaction for the customer while also providing
an opportunity for additional suppliers to compete for [9] Bauwens, Michael (1 February 2015). The sharing econthe business, further reducing costs.[10] Consumers can
omy is a lie: Uber, Ayn Rand and the truth about tech and
then spend more on other goods and services, stimulating
libertarians. salon.com. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
demand and production in other parts of the economy.
Classical economics argues that innovation that lowers [10] Gig Economy Hasnt Taken Over. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
the cost of goods and services represents a net economic
benet overall. However, like many new technologies and [11] Bloomberg-Justin Fox-Gig Economy is Growing, But Not
business innovations, this trend is disruptive to existing
Growing Up-October 2, 2015
business models and presents challenges for governments
[12] Hazlitt, Henry (1979). Economics in One Lesson. Three
and regulators.[12]
Rivers Press. ISBN 0-517-54823-2.

For example, should the companies providing the technology platform be liable for the actions of the suppli- [13] GAO-Contingent Workforce: Size, Characteristics, Earnings, Benets-April 2015
ers in their network? Should persons in their network be
treated as employees, receiving benets such as health- [14] Fivethirtyeight.com Fischer-Baum and Bialik-Uber is
care and retirement plans? If consumers tend to be higher
Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxisincome persons while the suppliers are lower-income perOctober 13, 2015
sons, will the lower cost of the services (and therefore

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Access economy Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_economy?oldid=687285444 Contributors: Topbanana, Farcaster, EricEnfermero, Fixuture and REH7

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