– Globally, the sharing economy is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 139.4% to reach US$115 billion by 2016 from US$3.5 billion in 2012
EY, a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, today unveiled a report on “The rise of 
the sharing economy: India Landscape” in association with National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). The report was unveiled at the Nasscom Product Conclave at Taj Vivanta Hotel, Bangalore by Ranjan Biswas, National Director & Partner, Technology, Media, Telecom and South, EY and Prof. Arun Sundararajan, NYU Stern School of Business in the presence of eminent personalities.
The report provides insights on the emerging concept of the ‘sharing economy’, defining the same as a socio-economic ecosystem that is built around the sharing of human and physical resources including shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organizations. According to the report, globally, the sharing economy is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 139.4% to reach US$115 billion by 2016 from US$3.5 billion in 2012.
Says Ranjan Biswas, Partner and National Director – Technology, Media, Telecom, EY, “Still at its nascent stage across most sectors in India, the concept of the sharing economy, at the moment, is more about consuming services than sharing resources. The three most prominent sectors of interest to players evaluating to leverage this model include transportation, accommodation, and food & beverages.”
The sharing economy also benefits, indirectly, some of the Government of India (GoI) initiatives like, Digital India program, Skill India program and Smart city program. Massive job creation is yet another one of the major advantage of the proliferating players inthe Sharing Economy.
The economics aspect of the sharing economy is anchored on innovative on-demand technologies that have significantly reduced transaction costs of exchange of goods and services. They have done this by making dispersed knowledge inexpensive and ubiquitous. Combining this with innovative software platforms, it has significantly extended the ability to coordinate economic exchanges.
Sharing on the report, Vidhyashankar, Head -Partner Alliances, Nasscom said, “The Indian sharing economy is increasingly driven by high growth startups impacting urban transportation, instant food delivery and affordable accommodations across metros and socio-economic groups. Combined with ubiquity, India as a mobile first nation and one of the fastest growing startup economies – the prevalence of payment innovations will ensure uptake of these software products in an exceptionally favourable investment scenario”.
Low asset ownership, job creation driving the sharing economy
The opportunity to the benefits of assets without owning them, upgrading living standards by use of shared resources and providing goods and services that would be unaffordable otherwise are driving shared economy. While it will not impact ownership of assets because of low penetration, shared economy will ensure improved utilization of those assets.
The sharing economy has also increased job opportunities in India. It has made self-employment easier and more people are turning entrepreneurs, translating into increased income for stakeholders in the sharing economy.
Factors key to driving shared economy opportunities
Security and trust mitigation: Authenticating the identity of the service provider is a good measure to build abasic level of trust between strangers but this is more challenging in a peer-to-peer business model as compared to the business-to-consumer model. Suppliers will have to significantly invest in infrastructure andprocesses that can effectively address consumer grievances and help in winning consumer trust.
Consistency in service quality: Since the level of customer services may vary from place to place and supplier to supplier, ability to scale up and deliver a high service quality consistent across all touch points will determine the long term viability of any service offered through the sharing economy model.
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Managing and skilling an unconventional workforce: Adequate background verification, training and skilling of such workforce are imperative for the successful delivery of services due to consumer-facing nature of the businesses in a sharing economy. As the sharing economy is dependent on maintaining a steady supply stream to meetitsdemand, dynamic pricing is an effective way for market participants to ensure the same.
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Tax compliance:The structure of sharing economy business models has serious implications for the compliance enforcement of consumption taxes such as service tax etc.
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Enabling regulatory environment: While the Government has enacted guidelines that limit the liability of intermediaries, many platforms believe that governments and regulators must clarify the applicability of these rules to various sectors within the sharing economy.
