{"id":45919,"date":"2023-10-20T15:47:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/airtasker-says-the-sharing-economy-is-bigger-than-uber-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:47:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:15","slug":"airtasker-says-the-sharing-economy-is-bigger-than-uber-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/airtasker-says-the-sharing-economy-is-bigger-than-uber-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Airtasker says the sharing economy is bigger than Uber – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Governments and businesses need to start recognising the full potential of the sharing economy rather than just focusing on Uber, Airtasker chief executive Tim Fung says.<\/p>\n
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He says that it\u2019s important the regulatory concerns surrounding the ride-sharing app don\u2019t overshadow the other elements of this emerging economy.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBusinesses and policy makers need to recognise the growth, potential and opportunity brought on by this trend,\u201d Fung says. \u201cThe sharing economy is gaining momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Tripling its users in 18 months<\/b><\/p>\n
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Airtasker has enjoyed huge growth in the last six months, bringing on 100,000 new users. It now has nearly 340,000 members, up from nearly 150,000 at this time last year.<\/p>\n
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Fung says this has mainly been organic, and due to new product developments and expanding the team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s exponential \u2013 the more people that join, the stronger it gets,\u201d he says. \u201cMore people are making a full-time living through working on Airtasker, so the product is getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Airtasker\u2019s \u201copen marketplace\u201d, a two-way platform where users can set their own prices, requires a reduction in government regulation in order to be fully effective, Fung says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn these kinds of businesses less regulation is required because the market regulates itself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a business where both sides of the market get to interact on a fairly free basis, and that creates close to a perfect market.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The difference between Uber and Airtasker<\/b><\/p>\n
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Much debate in Australia and the rest of the world regarding the sharing economy has been based on the legality of ride-sharing app Uber and whether its drivers should be classified as employees or independent contractors.<\/p>\n
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But Fung says it\u2019s important that not all startups living in the sharing economy are grouped together.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re very, very different to a business that tells someone you need to drive from here to here, and be paid this much and if you don\u2019t we\u2019ll cancel your account,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got defined services and defined pricing then it\u2019s not really so much an open marketplace as a defined marketplace. That\u2019s when the government should step in. There shouldn\u2019t be one company deciding how thousands of people are getting paid, that\u2019s a more traditional model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Studying the sharing economy<\/b><\/p>\n
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In collaboration with PureProfile, Airtasker has conducted a study on the sharing economy, finding that nearly half of Australian consumers are aware of it, and less than 20% have made a transaction in it.<\/p>\n
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Studies like this are crucial for displaying the full extent of the sharing economy and how Australians are embracing it, Fung says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe figures are incredibly important given the ongoing, national debate around the sharing economy movement in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Building awareness is the most difficult part of running a business in the sharing economy, Fung says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPeople always ask who our direct competitor is, and it\u2019s not a company,\u201d he says. \u201cOur biggest competitor is apathy, and that people don\u2019t know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor us it\u2019s about creating awareness that these companies are here and growing, and that they\u2019re part of the Australian economic ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
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