The Business of Sharing

"For most of the past 50 years, renters have been conceding ground to owners. But renting is now ascendant, thanks to trends in technology, austerity, and sustainability. The Internet makes it easy to compare prices, which makes rental cars and hotel rooms cheaper. It also allows new ways of renting and sharing to thrive. For example, car-sharing is booming even as car sales languish.

"Zipcar, an American firm, has 400,000 members who pay an annual fee and can then rent cars by the hour. People are renting things they never used to rent, such as clothes and toys. Some pioneers of "collaborative consumption" have dispensed with inventories and act purely as brokers, helping people sell their spare capacity in everything from parking spaces to energy..." Read the Economist article.