The Sharing Economy

Project Summary
''“Each of these creates a cyber-market for products or services that undermine existing markets; some of which are highly regulated.”'' (Sustainable Growth and Work in the Era of Cloud and Big Data: Will Escaping the Commodity Trap Be our Undoing?)

This paper will explain how these social media platforms revolutionized the industry of microtransactions, changed the way marketing is structured, and opened up new opportunities for independent businesses and an easy jumpstart to success from the comfort of one’s home.

Possible other discussions will involve kickstarter, indiegogo, godaddy, wordpress, and LinkedIn.

Introduction
Businesses have changed in recent years. With the outbreak of social media platforms and the Internet becoming more ubiquitous in every day life, new business models have risen to adapt and stand out amongst the many new trends emerging. While not with an official name, as these new business strategies vary in concept and execution, and thus are all in different leagues of their own. However, one element that these new campaigns have in common is that they all tend to use “sharing”, mainly through the Internet itself, in order to get their word across as well as how to conduct their business. It can range from the crowdsourcing fundraiser website Kickstarter, the cost efficient independent carpool service Uber, or even social media services themselves such as Facebookm Twitter and Instagram. All of these styles of businesses are collectively refer to as the “sharing economy”, which is notable for their unconventional and revolutionary method of conducting business. This paper will explain how these social media platforms revolutionized the industry of microtransactions, changed the way marketing is structured., and opened up new opportunities for independent businesses and an easy jumpstart to success from the comfort of one’s home.

Main Points

 * Sharing economy has changed the way businesses have worked.
 * Main cause of this "sharing economy" style of business is the ubiquity of the Internet in modern society.
 * Is it good? Is it bad?
 * The costs and risks it takes. (Privacy issues, reliance on technology, damage is greater if the business fails, demands a lot of customer feedback and support)
 * Is it the future of businesses? YES.