Rather than putting an end to it, the virus is forcing the sector to reinvent itself. Could that involve a return to its socialist roots?
were dead.” Emmanuel Bamfo, the boss of Globe, a six-person startup founded a year ago, began thinking about what job to do next when the coronavirus hit in March. His firm acted like a short-term Airbnb: its app let people rent out their homes or even only parts of them, such as the bedroom or the bathroom, for a few hours. This became an unattractive proposition during a pandemic.
The Great Recession in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-09 did much to create the ideological impetus to use technology to build an economy in which consumption would be more social, frugal and sustainable. Instead of owning things, the thinking went, people should share access to them using apps and other online services. “I don’t want stuff, I want the ... experiences it fulfils,” said Rachel Botsman, one of the champions of the trend.s to power tools and cars, never took off.
By the time Uber went public in May last year, it had lost a total of $16.6bn between 2016 and 2019. It said that it would lose more cash before turning a profit, a big reason why its initial public offering was not as successful as many had predicted. Even Airbnb, whose business model of taking a cut of rental fees meant that it had made profits for some time, began losing money—$322m in the first nine months of 2019.
The big question is whether being cleaner and leaner will be sufficient for these firms to bounce back when the lockdowns are lifted or whether the “isolation economy” will change habits to an extent that sharing is pushed to the margins. Is ownership destined to make a comeback? Uber also intends to gobble up competitors. Despite getting out of e-bikes it has invested in Lime, Bird’s biggest e-scooter rival. It also wants to buy Grubhub to boost an existing food-delivery business that it hopes will thrive. “In difficult times consolidation makes sense,” says Mr Khosrowshahi, who excelled at this task during his previous job as boss of Expedia, an online travel site that hoovered up rivals.
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