UK’s collaborative community has kicked off 2014 with the exciting announcement that two of its largest neighbourhood sharing sites, Freeconomy and Streetbank, will be uniting to form a one-stop-shop gifting-based platform. This is a positive step towards more collaboration between sharing economy companies as they start to work together to align assets and simplify systems, ultimately providing better and more efficient ways for their community to share their stuff.
Mark Boyle of Freeconomy explains why he’s excited about the new merger: “After pouring my soul into Freeconomy for six years, joining forces with another organisation isn’t something I do lightly. Making the decision to unite with Streetbank so that we can be of better service to the world was easy though — an inspiring mission, common values, a great platform and, most importantly, a fantastic team of people determined to take the sharing economy to communities everywhere. The potential is huge and very exciting.”
Both Streetbank and Freeconomy make it easier for people to share ‘stuff’ and skills with anyone living within a mile of their home. The companies allow local people in the community to share toys, baby gear, career advice, tutoring and other skills, with both websites working on a ‘gift’ basis – people lend their things unconditionally to neighbours, with no money changing hands and no obligation to give anything in return.
The Freeconomy Community is the older of the two organisations, set up by Irish activist and writer Mark Boyle in 2007. The project currently has 52,000 members spread across 180 countries, with the majority in the UK.
Headhunter and social entrepreneur Sam Stephens started his online sharing project in 2010. Streetbank now has 28,000 members sharing 42,586 things.
