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It's because "sharing" sounds really good. Everyone knows that it is kind to share, so lots of companies try to stick the word on to their own business. I hate
by joosters 10y ago
It's because "sharing" sounds really good. Everyone knows that it is kind to share, so lots of companies try to stick the word on to their own business.
I hate the way that any company with a vaguely peer-to-peer business model calls themselves 'sharing', or 'part of the sharing economy'. It's not just Uber. e.g. Zopa (a p2p loans company) describes itself as 'sharing', but it's a business where people lend money to others for a fee. AirBnB claims to be 'sharing', but at it's core, it is little more than a hotel booking system. Taskrabbit gets described as 'part of the sharing economy' but no-one is sharing anything, you are paying for workers to do chores.
Since when has sharing involved making a profit by charging users?
- pm90 10y agoI had a similar thought when I saw a person working for a company called favor (https://favordelivery.com/ https://favordelivery.com/). The dictionary definition of favor: a kind or helpful act that you do for someone.
- personlurking 10y agounless one is a politician or a mobster, of course.
- hkmurakami 10y agoIn the mid 2000's, we were incentivized to call anything remotely possibly nanotechnology related "nano-XYZ". It lead to demonstrably better government grant success. The behavior isn't even limited to tech startups.
- quadrangle 10y agoTo be fair, AirBnB has the premise of actual sharing, like I let you use my house when I'm away or stay in my guest room that I share with other people or use for myself at other times… AirBnB is also truly peer-to-peer, at least part of the time. In practice, some of AirBnB is like a hotel, but not all. In contrast, Uber is not like AirBnB. It sets the rates for drivers, requires certain cars, etc. If Uber really was like AirBnB overall, it'd be a different story.