ARTICLE | Airbnb, Blablacar, Le Bon Coin... Who benefits from collaborative consumption platforms?

SUMMARY

Authors: Vincent Malardé and Thierry Pénard, CREM, Université de Rennes 1, Faculté de Sciences Économiques, M@rsouin.
La Documentation française | " Économie & prévision "
2019/1 n° 215 | pages 1 à 28

Accommodation and loans from one person to another, carpooling - these practices have developed strongly in recent years with the rise of the Internet and mobile applications. Sensitivity to environmental issues also contributes to these new forms of consumption, which tend to favor recycling, sharing and short circuits. The success of platforms such as Airbnb, Blablacar and Leboncoin bears witness to this craze for the collaborative economy. These platforms represent real economic and social innovations, benefiting users and society as a whole. By facilitating contact between individuals, they can create opportunities for exchange, develop social ties, provide additional income or optimize the use of certain under-exploited resources (for example, renting out an unoccupied room, car sharing...). But these platforms are also subject to criticism. In particular, they are criticized for competing unfairly with existing businesses, and for undermining jobs (by using private individuals or self-employed entrepreneurs).

This article provides an overview of the use of collaborative platforms in the fields of short-term accommodation (such as Airbnb), car-sharing (such as Blablacar) and the sale of goods between private individuals (such as Leboncoin). The article exploits a survey conducted in 2016 among 2,000 people representative of the French population over the age of 18 who use the Internet. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Marsouin Observatory and aims to understand who the users of these platforms are, what the disincentives are to using these platforms, what gains are obtained on these platforms and to what extent the profiles of the offerers and demanders on these platforms differ. In particular, we want to know whether the use of these platforms has spread and benefits the whole population, or whether it is concentrated on certain categories of people.

The econometric analysis is based on Probit, bivariate Probit and Tobit methods. An individual's decision whether or not to use a platform is explained by socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, size of urban area, level of education, income level, number of children), social preferences (degree of trust in others, level of risk aversion, level of sociability), as well as by the characteristics of his or her entourage (having platform users in his or her circle).

The results indicate that the decision whether or not to use a collaborative platform is strongly correlated with certain socio-economic characteristics of an individual. Young, well-educated individuals with comfortable incomes are more likely to be users of collaborative platforms. In addition, the results highlight the importance of an individual's level of trust and sociability on his or her likelihood of being a platform user. The magnitude of these effects differs according to the sector of activity concerned, whether it's private accommodation, car-sharing or marketplaces. Trust has a particularly strong effect on the decision to use a car-sharing platform, and the effect of age is also significant on this type of platform. Level of education and degree of sociability are decisive for the use of sharing platforms, but have no effect on the decision to use a marketplace. These effects also differ according to the users' role on the platform (offerer or requester). The results show that individuals with a high degree of trust in others and/or a comfortable standard of living derive greater income from these platforms. This last result suggests that
collaborative platforms could reinforce income inequalities by benefiting those who already have more economic capital.

Keywords: Airbnb, blablacar, collaborative economy, survey, innovation, leboncoin, collaborative platforms

Illustration : BlaBlaCar