This excerpt is reposted from Harvard Business Review. Written by Rachel Botsman Two years ago Peggy Fang Roe noticed a frustrating phenomenon. The chief sales and marketing officer in Marriott’s Asia Pacific division, Fang Roe knows that hotel conference rooms are underutilized—yet she often saw people searching Marriott’s lobbies and restaurants for a quiet spot… Read more
We scour the internet to find the most interesting news on the collaborative consumption front. Here are our picks for the week: Sharing’s Not Just for Start-Ups Rachel Botsman, Harvard Business Review Marriott is just one example of an established company that’s starting to take a serious interest in the collaborative economy. Many observers associate… Read more
Task-outsourcing site TaskRabbit just killed off its famous task bidding system for a new model: instantly bookable services in four of its most popular categories. With the destruction of the bidding service, TaskRabbit has ushered in fixed hourly rates for tasks. Read the full story on VentureBeat
We scour the internet to find the most interesting news on the collaborative consumption front. Here are our picks for the week: TaskRabbit Unveils It’s New Look Miles Kohrman, FastCompany After announcing a major update to its service in June, the micro-task marketplace TaskRabbit has launched a suite of new products and features-complete new iOS… Read more
We scour the internet to find the most interesting news on the collaborative consumption front. Here are our picks for the week: Following A Drop In Completed Jobs, Errands Marketplace TaskRabbit Shakes Up Its Business Model Sarah Perez, TechCrunch Errands marketplace TaskRabbit is shaking things up today with a change to its business model. The… Read more
Denise Cheng, a Comparative Media Studies Graduate student at MIT, recently gave an update on her research exploring how different paradigms of work move into the mainstream. She also brings to light potential worker welfare issues as we transition to an economy embracing collaborative consumption. We spoke to Denise earlier this year to shed some… Read more
Most consumers view collaborative consumption services and apps as a convenient way to save money. But one San Francisco couple uses collaborative consumption services and apps to make money. Starting with Poshmark, and then TaskRabbit and Airbnb, Brittney Bedford quit her job as a cook to be her own boss and command her time. Her husband later followed suit after realizing… Read more
“TaskRabbit CRO Anne Raimondi said that 30 percent of TaskRabbit revenue already comes from small businesses, and many of them are trying to use the platform to do much more than posting simple one-off tasks like building Ikea furniture. For instance, companies have used TaskRabbit to find a temporary office manager while theirs is unavailable… Read more
“Wal-Mart is dipping its toe into the sharing economy. The iconic seller of mass-produced, cheaply made, inexpensive, goods is considering a new crowdsourced delivery system. The plan is based on the idea of the ‘sharing economy,’ which connects people with available goods, services, skills, space, time etc… to those who need them. Startups like TaskRabbit, Exec, Zaarly, and Postmates have… Read more
“Nate Blecharczyk cofounder and CTO of Airbnb said that regulation should be different for collaborative consumption services because owners of homes or cars are usually the ones providing the service. Therefore the service provided is usually much better than at traditional retail hotels, taxis, and the like. ‘The service provider is the owner, whereas most… Read more