The Collaborative Economy is Initially Used by Early Adopters
While online services from the collaborative economy become more and more popular with consumers, a study shows that their main users are primarily "Early Adopters ". Whether in the field of transport with Uber, finance with Kickstarter, or leasing with our service, Roomlala, it’s possible to find users with the same type of profiles, well ahead of the rest of the world.
A lack of awareness among the general publicCollaborative consumption is becoming increasingly popular month after month, regularly appearing on front pages and headlines of the news. Despite this, almost 3 out of 4 consumers state that they have never heard of the term ‘collaborative economy’, and cannot provide any examples of collaborative services. This was the assessment made from a study published by the Pew Research Centre.
Conducted in December 2015 with more than 4,500 American consumers, the study shows that only 20% of them have used a service of this type. The general public are therefore still slow to adopt collaborative consumption, despite the potential savings and ease of use. Acclaimed services by “early adopters”People who use collaborative services are mostly in the vanguard of the population. According to the same figures from the Pew Research Center, these early adopters are unsurprisingly from younger age groups. Over a third of 18-44 year olds say they are regular followers of the sharing economy, with an average of 4 different services already tested. Conversely, nearly one in two people aged 50 or older have never tried a single one. Education seems to be a decisive factor in the adoption of collaborative consumption: university graduates use it 5 times more than high school graduates.
Beyond the financial aspectRegarding their public relations, collaborative services promise to help their users save money or supplement an income. However, statistics from the Pew Research Center show that the financial motivation is not a priority for consumers. Thus, the wealthiest households earning more than $100,000 a year regularly use collaborative services, which is 3 times more than the poorest households with annual incomes below $30,000. For more information on the types collaborative services in the UK, see our article on Collaborative Consumption in the UK.
Author: Roomlala
