Germans are sharing more and more: cars, flats, even their workplaces. Supporters of the new sharing economy are convinced that this trend is making them more sociable and will, sooner or later, bring about positive change in society. According to a survey by the consultancy firm PwC, one in two people in this country has already made use of sharing services. Yet the impression of a society undergoing positive change is deceptive.
The excesses of sharing: Airbnb and co.
The basic idea behind sharing was to make large assets accessible to everyone and to share the costs. A clear counter-movement to capitalism. Or so it seems, at least. On closer inspection, and against the backdrop of recent reports on Airbnb and Uber, a completely opposite picture emerges.
The company Uber Taxi has been trying to conquer the German market for years. The idea behind it sounds socially minded at first, but merely masks its capitalist potential. Any car owner can become a driver via the Uber app – even without a taxi licence – and at a rate that is causing established taxi companies to fear for their survival. So far, the legislature has put a stop to Uber’s expansion plans. The only question is for how much longer.
Airbnb has also hit the headlines. Property owners are happily capitalising on their homes by offering their vacant flats to tourists on overpriced short-term lets. According to media reports, this is even said to be one of the causes of the ongoing housing shortage in Berlin. During the high season, owners of second homes prefer to ‘share’ their properties at inflated prices rather than letting them on a long-term basis.
A change in social behaviour?
Experts doubt that society will benefit in the long term from a positive shift in social behaviour. Historian Louise Tremel from the Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit (Foundation for Sustainability) comments that Airbnb and Uber are not really about sharing at all. People are capitalising on their flats in desirable neighbourhoods so that prospective tenants who already have good access to goods can rent them. Nishant Shah, a sharing economy expert at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, goes so far as to claim that the only thing being shared in the sharing economy is people and their capacities. We must even be careful to ensure that the self-employed on a small scale do not turn themselves into cheap service providers for large companies, which exploit them and skim off the lion’s share of the profits.
Germany: The sharing economy and co-working are becoming increasingly popular
Companies have embraced the sharing model, following the example of the US. Although job-sharing is not yet widespread in Germany, experts believe it is only a matter of time before the model gains widespread acceptance. Two employees share the same position on a half-day basis. The advantage for employees is that they can better balance family and work life and can scale back their hours without leaving the company entirely. Motivation and productivity benefit from this model. There are also positive effects for companies: when two employees work in the same role, synergies arising from their different skills can be harnessed. Furthermore, absences due to illness or holidays can be covered by the second partner in the tandem.
A completely different kind of ‘tandem partner’ has emerged in the wake of digitalisation. Coworking was once regarded as a philosophy of the start-up scene: whilst several young companies do not work together on a single project, they do share the costs of office rent. Today, more and more self-employed people are also using this model to make the dream of running their own business a reality. When you step into these so-called co-working spaces, you quickly get the impression that an entire team is pulling in the same direction. This may well already be the case for some co-workers. After all, the advantage of such shared office spaces – and of the sharing economy as a whole – is that people from different fields get to know one another, exchange valuable tips and, if the other person’s business model fits well with their own, capitalise on business synergies.
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