It’s clear that P2P services are quickly swooping into new markets to snap up lucrative business in areas that desperately need them. Particularly when it comes to areas that were previously run by monopolies who faced no other competition, they could afford to not innovate: who were they competing with? This can be easily attributed to the taxi industry which for so long dominated rinks outside airports, night clubs, train stations, footy games, and so much more.
Sure there’s going to be other taxi companies in the mix, but how much did they have to compete on really? Market Watch was quick to pick up on the fact that in other regions and, there are clear reasons why:
“Over the past three years, peer-to-peer (P2P) car sharing in Europe and North America has changed from a basic service provided by grassroots organisations to a widely recognised, transformative urban transport industry. As traditional P2P carsharing operators (CSOs) diversify their business models to include airport and train station rentals, P2P carsharing is quickly becoming an affordable, accessible, and integrated multi-modal transport solution.”
Though it might be hard to find something other than carsharing P2P services as the average membership will grow from the mere 1.3 million in 2014 to reach 9.8 million in 2025”. That’s nearly a 20% year on year growth in almost the same amount of time. Low barriers to entry, a hungry jobs market, and its simplicity are just some of the reasons why more and more people are flocking to P2P services.
We are also continuing to see newer business models appear through the P2P network including short term loans, sharing home cooked meals, dog-sitting and more. With these new avenues comes new ways to track them. Market Watch has found “new market segments that have developed to meet evolving customer needs”.
New markets to suit customer needs? That would be the most important takeaway from the rising P2P industry. Increasingly, we’re seeing people empowered with low barriers to entry that are enabling more and more people to get involved. They get involved and they meet the needs of people and these needs are not being addressed by traditional industry models (like taxis) that have worked for so long with little competition. As Bob Dylan once sang, oh the times, they are a-changin’.
The original article can be read in full here: www.marketwatch.com/story/cost-and-other-benefits-drive-peer-to-peer-carsharing-adoption-in-europe-and-north-america-2015-07-15