We scour the internet to find the most interesting news on the collaborative consumption front. Here are our picks for the week:
Thousands of European Cab Drivers Protest Uber, Taxi Apps
Lisa Fleisher, Wall Street Journal
Thousands of European taxi drivers snarled traffic in cities across the continent, protesting car-hailing services provided by Uber Technologies Inc. and others. Drivers in London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid, among others, have complained that the services aren’t competing on a level playing field.
At $18 billion, Uber’s valuation reflects froth but not a bubble
William Watts, Market Watch Blog, The Wall Street Journal
Mobile car-hailing service Uber understandably sparked another round of bubble talk when its valuation hit $18.2 billion in June following a $1.6 billion round of funding from a wide range of investors including mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.
Writing the Rules of the Sharing Economy
Ann Babe, Techonomy
The sharing economy has been called the next big disruptor. But is it disrupting enough? Fast enough? Broadly enough? The answers depend on whom you ask. As sharing expands into more industries and infiltrates more cities, it’s hard to keep up with the changes and understand whether they amount to progress.
7 Cities Where the Sharing Economy Is Freshly Under Attack
Brad Tuttle, TIME
As Uber, Lyft, and airbnb expand around the globe, even smaller cities like Grand Rapids are feeling forced to regulate sharing economy businesses.
We have no idea how big the peer-to-peer economy is
Emily Badger, The Washington Post
The micro-entrepreneurship site Etsy now has a more than a million sellers, individuals — overwhelmingly women — making things like barnwood cutting boards, hand-sewn tea towels and children’s toys out of their homes or small manufacturing plants.
