Opportunities of a Shared Economy in Hungary Based on Primary Research

Civic Review, Vol. 16, Special Issue, 2020, 385–398, DOI: 10.24307/psz.2020.1224 Mónika Pónusz, Patricia Kolonics

Summary study does not aim to decide which of the The term ‘sharing economy’ means an camps on the two sides of the argument is economy based on sharing, a community right; instead, it provides an overview of economy. The model features elements the characteristics of the sharing economy such as paying attention to the environ- and its main areas thus far. It argues for the ment, the importance of curbing consump- model relying mostly on international prac- tion, and rationalising consumption habits. tice and experience. One of the objectives Its significance could best be highlighted of our research is to explore the difficulties, through recycling waste, the purpose of obstacles and anomalies relating to the reg- which is to reduce the amount of waste gen- ulation of the area, particularly to tax laws. erated from the goods we use, and also to Furthermore, we strive to identify the cir- reduce the need for new resources by recy- cumstances that have resulted in flourish- cling such waste back into the system. For ing sharing economies in some countries, those advocating the sharing economy it is so that we can put forward proposals to fos- a potential way to rein in the global over- ter such development in Hungary, making consumption that is based on individual use of the country’s capabilities. The study consumption, while for those opposing the summarises the results of our secondary re- idea it signifies competition and a threat to search, our primary research conducted in their livelihood, not to mention the possi- Hungary in 2019, an online survey and in- bility/suspicion of tax optimisation, or in depth interviews. The questions of the on- a worse-case scenario tax avoidance. This line survey were aimed at investigating the

Mónika Pónusz PhD, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of Institute of Econo- mics and Management, Faculty of Law, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary ([email protected]), Patricia Kolonics, Károli Gás- pár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Institute for Church and Society, Department of Care for Creation, economist ([email protected]).

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awareness and use of the sharing economy, al. (2020) examined the internal features and people’s openness to such initiatives. of the different sharing platforms, pointing out the “self-contradiction”, the internal Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: tension in the sharing economy. M14, D16, Q01 Botsman and Rogers (2011) offered the Keywords: sharing economy, community following definition of the sharing econo- economy, collaborative economy, collabo- my: “An economic system based on sharing rative consumption underused assets or services, for free or for a fee, directly from individuals”. It relies on Introduction markets between individuals, which depend to a great extent on trust between strangers, A sharing economy can be a tool in the which can be regarded as ‘social glue’. In fight to protect human living space by curb- this system the individuals, as service pro- ing consumption and rationalising con- viders, can be regarded as micro-business- sumption habits. es (Gelei et al., 2001; Szigeti et al., 2014). We aim to provide an overview of the Lisa Gansky (2010) defines “The Mesh” sharing economy, outlining briefly how it as “sharing enabled by the network”, and developed and presenting its forms in Hun- she attributes four core characteristics to gary and abroad. We intend to introduce a “Mesh Business” as she puts it. The core this economic model to as many people as offering is something that can be shared. possible, to encourage thinking and reflec- Products and services can easily be shared tion on what opportunities and tools they within a community. The second charac- can envisage in their own environment. teristic is that it uses advanced digital net- Furthermore, we would like to draw atten- works to track goods and aggregate usage, tion to the significance of protecting the customer, and product information. The environment (Mesterházi et al., 2020; Oláh third characteristics of the “Mesh” is that et al., 2019), and living in an environmen- the focus is on shareable physical goods, tally conscious manner (Fehér et al., 2015). which makes local delivery of services and products valuable and relevant. Offers, Review of definitions news, and recommendations are transmit- and subject matter ted largely through word of mouth, aug- mented by social network services – this is Experts studying the model have come up the fourth characteristic. According to Alex with different definitions of the community Stephany (2015), there are four features to economy. describe the sharing economy: economic In his analysis, Szuchy (2020) gives a value (created by exchanging assets either comprehensive overview of the connec- using money or in a bartering transaction), tions between the energy sector and the “underutilised assets”, online availability sharing economy, pointing out that “we are (via the internet), and the reduced need faced with new and highly complex legisla- for ownership. tive situations that cannot be regulated, or In his book published in 2016, Arun not adequately, within the current legisla- Sundararajan offers a synthesis of defini- tive framework”. In their study, Lazányi et tions by contemporary authors, pointing

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out five characteristics of crowd-based capi- the distribution organisations they are con- talism, the term he uses to describe the nected to (Simay and Gáti, 2018). sharing economy. He believes the system is Overall, the sharing economy can be largely market-based: the sharing economy regarded as one of the megatrends of the creates markets that enable the exchange 21st century, leading potentially to a so- of goods and the emergence of new ser- cially more focused and more responsible vices, resulting in potentially higher levels economy (Tóth et al., 2016). of economic activity. In addition to the development of services, it could also have an Research methodology impact on product innovation, such as functional foods (Fehér et al., 2012). The sec- When preparing the study, we chose to mix ond characteristic is high-impact capital, as our methods. The literature review is based the sharing economy opens new opportuni- mostly on sources available online. Given ties for everything, from assets and skills to its nature, printed literature was used to a time and money, to be used at levels closer lesser extent. We also used the policy posi- to their full capacity. The third feature is a tion of the European Union on the shar- shift to crowd-based networks rather than ing economy, the directives regulating it, as centralised institutions. The supply of capi- well as the study by PricewatershouseCoop- tal and labour comes from decentralised ers Hungary on the sharing economy. crowds of individuals rather than corporate As part of the primary research, we con- or state aggregates. Future exchange may be ducted in-depth interviews and an online mediated by distributed crowd-based mar- survey to learn more about the awareness ketplaces rather than by third parties. Blur- of the community economy, and about the ring lines between the personal and the pro- openness towards or the rejection of using fessional is the fourth feature. The supply sharing-based platforms. The data was col- of labour and services often commercialises lected in April 2019. The sample based on and scales certain activities like giving some- 150 evaluable responses is not representa- one a ride or lending someone money, activ- tive, it was based on convenience sampling ities which used to be considered personal. and on the snowball sampling method Blurring lines between fully employed and (Babbie, 1996, p. 704). This analysis uses de- casual labour, between independent and scriptive statistics, we intend to use analyses dependent employment, between work and going further than this in future research. leisure is the fifth characteristic (Sundarara- For a more complete picture, we also con- jan, 2016, p. 30). ducted in-depth interviews with experts. In the globalising economy, new dimensions of business activities are spurred by International and Hungarian the internet every day. The different mar- examples ket players have to respond to consumer needs in a technology-based, highly inno- We present specific international examples vative environment, where consumer life is and provide information on Hungarian split between offline and online space, in- examples. The term “sharing economy” is cluding social media platforms where users associated mostly with Airbnb, Uber and continuously interact with one another and Couchsurfing, but it is not just these three

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that fall under the umbrella of sharing. Short-term car-sharing: These are indeed the most obvious exam- The taxi reinvented. Using – sharing ples of the sharing economy, but now we – their own cars, drivers offer a passenger want to present activities based on commu- service. The person requests a lift in the nity use together with the sharing economy. application, essentially hailing a taxi, and In the 2015 study by PricewaterhouseCoop- this need is met by a nearby driver; pay- ers Hungary on the sharing economy, seven ment also takes place through the app, as key sectors were identified where the pres- follows: ence of sharing-based services is significant a) Uber: on-demand method, providing both in Hungary and abroad, or they have rides customer to customer, i.e. c2c rides, the potential to grow (Damjanovics et al., or peer to peer, i.e. p2p. (Uber is available 2015). We want to use these seven sectors in over 600 cities across the world, but it has and the examples in the PwC study to pre- been banned in a number of places, includ- sent the key players, adding services we being Hungary.) lieve are worth mentioning. b) OLA: Indian rideshare, community taxi. The mobility industry c) Wundercar: Provides car-pooling, vehicle renting and ride-hailing services in The sharing economy seems to be prolifer- Europe, the USA and Japan. ating mostly in the automotive industry. By d) Lyft: on-demand car-sharing, avail- triggering a switch from ownership to shar- able in the USA and Canada. ing and access, the mobility industry seems e) DiDi Chuxing: the “Chinese Uber”, to be evolving from, and parallel to, the au- available in 7 countries besides China. tomotive industry. Car hire: Long-term carpooling: An application enables you to search for Drivers looking for a passenger, and nearby cars available for hire, your driving passengers needing a ride, can find one an- licence is approved and the booking and other on online platforms, sharing the costs payment take place through the applica- of the journey between them. The driver of- tion as well. fers a ride, and the passenger(s) heading to 1. B2C, on-demand, business-to-custom- the same destination at the same time can er service: book the available seat(s). It is mostly rides a) Zipcar: “the world’s largest short- between cities or abroad that fall into this term community car-hire provider” (Dam- category. The aim is to increase capacity, janovics et al., 2015) available in 10 coun- share costs and cut back on car traffic. For tries.3 example: b) GreenGo: Also called the “Bubi car”, a) BlablaCar: a French system available the first Hungarian e-car sharing system, in 22 countries, almost all of which are in launched in 2016.4 Europe, including Hungary, but also in c) MOL Limo: Available through the Mexico, Brazil and India.1 MOL Limo app, which covers everything b) Oszkár Telekocsi: Pioneering car- from paying the one-off registration fee, pooling in Hungary in 2007, its users now verifying driving licences, booking cars, number over 600,000.2 opening and closing the vehicle, and the

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payments. Users do not need to worry helps access goods more quickly and simply about fees relating to parking, insurance in a budget-friendly way. Generally small and servicing. It was launched in January household appliances, certain kitchen ap- 2018.5 pliances and occasionally sports equipment 2. C2C or P2P, car-hire between indi- are rented out to increase their utilisation, viduals: for example: a) Getaround: launched in 2013, the a) Second-hand clothes sold as a sign of service boosts the utilisation rate of cars in environmental awareness, e.g. Threadflip, US cities, and enables car owners to make Poshmark, hiring formal wear, e.g. Vinted, extra money. Rent the Runway. b) Yes Autorent: Hungarian car-hire b) Community gardens (cooperation in system, where private individuals rent their urban communities to grow vegetables to- cars, sharing their revenue with the opera- gether). tors of the mediating platform. c) The website Rukkola.hu enables peo- c) Avalon Carsharing: on-demand car- ple to swap books for free.9 sharing system. d) Using Piqniq enables people to share Community navigation system: food. For example, Waze: number one com- e) The website Miutcánk.hu picked munity-driven traffic and navigation app in up the gauntlet to fight extreme wasteful- the world, where users share real-time traf- ness and the alienation and deterioration fic and route information.6 of neighbourhood relationships, triggered Hiring parking spaces: Justpark, for ex- by the accelerating world, by providing a ample, connects those looking for parking platform aimed at turning these processes spaces with residents offering parking in around, namely, to revive the power of cities all over the world. communities, to strengthen local cohesion Hiring boats, e.g. Boatbound. by renting out tools, providing services on Renting bikes: MOL Bubi, the Hungar- a reciprocal basis, and by organising joint ian “public bike-sharing system”, facilitat- programmes.10 ing public transport in Budapest with 1,526 f) Etsy: an online market of unique bicycles at 126 docking stations.7 items where you can buy hand-made or Renting scooters: e.g. Blinkee.city, e- vintage items directly from the seller or the scooter-sharing in Budapest, sponsored by maker. Established in 2005 in the USA, this E.ON.8 bilateral marketplace has offices in 7 coun- Other: route planner for people in tries across the world.11 wheelchairs such as Route4U. g) Meska.hu is the largest and most popular crafts-designer online marketplace Retail and consumer goods in Hungary, which was established in 2005 to help sellers and buyers in the crafts sec- The sharing economy entering the retail tor to find one another. The website aims sector and gaining ground rapidly can be to help young mothers, disadvantaged and explained by changes in consumer habits old people to find work by making quality and people becoming more cost-aware. It crafts products.12

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Tourism and hotels only enables you to meet new people from all over the world when travelling, but stay- Monetised home sharing: ing with locals gives you the benefit of tour- Renting out all or part of the property guiding tailored to your needs, making you own or rent for financial gain. This ena- travel a truly personal experience. Couch- bles people to build relationships, to make surfing has nearly 142,000 hosts in Hun- journeys personal, and to enjoy help and gary.17 hospitality from locals showing you around. a) Airbnb: dominates the market, ac- Entertainment, multimedia and cording to the 2015 study by PwC, guest telecommunications nights and the number of users skyrock- eted by 150% in every country in the re- The most popular online audio streaming gion. Since it started in the USA in 2007, services, Spotify and Deezer, are available nearly 5 million homes are available in over for users in Hungary too, while Netflix, a 191 countries, including more than 300 in service provider offering television shows Hungary. Studies by Jancsik et al. show that and films, has already appeared in the Hun- private accommodation is fundamentally garian market as well. YouTube, the undis- different from hotels in terms of average puted global leader in online video stream- performance, the stability of their market ing services (i.e. content you can view or presence or investment strategies, so it is listen to without downloading), was one of vital to make sure that regulation is propor- the “early birds” of the sharing economy tionate (Csernyik et al., 2018). when it was launched in 2005 (Damjanovics b) HomeExchange: global platform et al., 2015). where users can agree to swap homes simul- taneously for an annual fee. Some 400 of The financial sector the 65,000 homes are located in Hungary.13 c) Community-based tourism services, A new and increasingly popular business e.g. home restaurants, where the owners option is crowdfunding, which offers alter- provide occasional meals. native opportunities for start-up businesses d) Other: coworking offices are con- seeking funding. sidered B2B services. Businesses using the Kickstarter: leading platform in crowd- service do not rent a permanent place, they funding, 152,541 projects worth nearly 4 work flexibly from places that happen to be million dollars have been implemented available. since it was established in 2009.18 Many LOFFICE: the first co-working office in Hungarian projects have been funded this Hungary.14 way. KAPTÁR Offices: shared offices, meet- Creative Selector: Kickstarter’s Hungar- ing rooms and event spaces, registered of- ian “little brother”, focusing on the creative fice service in Budapest.15 industries. Non-monetised home sharing: C2C or P2P lending: online platforms Couchsurfing: hosts share their homes facilitating lending by investors to those ap- free of charge with strangers, or “friends plying for loans. you haven’t met yet”.16 This platform not Lending Club: the most prominent

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player on the market from the USA, loans counts as one of the early birds of the shar- exceeding 38.5 billion dollars were issued ing economy, and is operated by the Flori- through Lending Club by the end of June da-based Wikimedia Foundation; it is edited 2018, compared to 9.2 billion dollars by by a voluntary community.21 March 2015.19 Miutcánk.hu: in addition to community Zopa, another key market player from building and lending tools, the platform the UK, has brokered loans for businesses also provides two-way services as mentioned totalling 3.74 billion pounds since it was es- earlier. tablished in 2005.20 Polyglot Club: just like Skillshare, it MagNet Bank: the first Hungarian com- hosts events enabling participants to prac- munity bank. tise foreign languages. Click4work: modelled on TaskRabbit, The energy sector the platform outsources tasks not requiring skilled work, with the help of students.22 The sharing economy provides community funding for renewable resources in the en- Results of our primary research ergy sector. Virtual power plants were created in the We prepared a questionnaire to support or United States encompassing small power refute that the community economy offers plants connected to a single control centre opportunities in practice. The survey aimed in terms of electric control, measurements to find out how aware people are of such and info-communication. This way, power novel community services, how many peo- plants located in different places can be ple already know them, what proportion controlled from a single centre and can en- of the respondents had already used them, ter the electricity market as a single virtual and if so, what opinion they had of these al- large power plant. ternatives, how satisfied they were, what experience they had, and, for those who had The human resources sector not used such services before, how open they were to giving them a go. We grouped TaskRabbit: A task-sharing platform match- our questions in six categories: demogra- ing freelance labour with people who have phy, environmental consciousness, car use, tasks to be done across the USA. The tasks awareness of sharing-based services and rel- advertised include furniture assembly, mov- evant experience, and awareness of a few ing, cleaning, running errands, repairs, specific sharing platforms. painting, deliveries, etc. The providers on To conduct the survey, we opted for the the supply side find work, while the people convenience and the snowball sampling on the demand side save time and energy. methods. A total of 150 respondents sent Skillshare: an innovative solution for the questionnaire back, so the population those wanting to study. Countless online queried cannot be regarded as representa- courses become available for a registration tive. Table 1 shows the demographic charac- fee, like an open university. teristics of the respondents, 58.7% of whom Wikipedia: Established in 2001, the were female, and 41.3% were male. Broken open content online world encyclopaedia down by place of residence, 38.7% lived in

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rural areas, while 61.3% of the respondents with a secondary education accounted for lived in urban areas (21.3% in the capital). 23% of the respondents, 5% were attending The age breakdown shows that the 18-25 a secondary school at the time, while those age group accounted for over 31% of the with a vocational qualification or just a pri- respondents, nearly 15% were aged 26-35, mary school education only accounted for 18% were 36-45 and nearly 20% were 46-55, 7% and 3%, respectively. which means that 84% of the respondents Nearly 81% of the respondents felt were economically active (students, wage strongly about the pollution of the environ- earners), while 12% were retired, or close ment, 16.7% could not decide, and only 3% to retirement. The employment breakdown responded with a ‘no’ to this question. In shows that the vast majority (56%) of the this regard, only 4 people said that they felt respondents were employees, a significant no responsibility for the environment, but 27.3% were students, while 6% and 8% were the vast majority were doing their part, try- business-owners and pensioners, respective- ing to live in an environmentally conscious ly. As for their education background, 42% way. Most of the respondents saw selective of the respondents had college or university waste collection (82.7%), saving energy degrees, and if we add the 20% of those cur- (77.3%) and cutting back on drinks in PET rently in tertiary education, it is safe to say bottles (50.7%) as key to the problem, but a that the overwhelming majority of the re- significant number of them, over 50%, said spondents (62%) were intellectuals. Those they preferred buying Hungarian products

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the respondents

Number of Number of Gender % Age % persons persons Female 88 58.7 under 18 7 4.7 Male 62 41.3 18–25 47 31.3 Number of Place of residence % 26–35 22 14.7 persons Village 58 38.7 36–45 27 18.0 Rural town 37 24.7 46–55 29 19.3 County seat city 23 15.3 56–65 10 6.7 Budapest 32 21.3 over 65 8 5.3 Number of Number of Employment % Education % persons persons student 41 27.3 primary school 4 2.7 employee 84 56.0 skilled worker 11 7.3 business owner 9 6.0 still in secondary education 7 4.7 secondary modern/grammar housewife/husband 4 2.7 35 23.3 school unemployed 0 0 still in tertiary education 30 20.0 retired 12 8.0 university/college 63 42.0 Source: By the authors based on the questionnaire (2019)

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instead of goods imported from abroad. 42% getting stuck in traffic jams, but some said believed that buying fewer products in plas- it makes people lazy, or there is no human tic packaging also helps the environment, contact with the external world, and it gen- but only 34% are committed to using their erates a high level of pollutants. car less for the sake of the environment, even The respondents mentioned public though 96% believed transport also con- transport, electric and hybrid cars, bicycles, tributes to environmental pollution, 38% of other two-wheeled means of transport and whom saying traffic contributes significantly walking as alternatives to driving. We were to pollution. Over 90% of the respondents glad to find that in addition to the above, owned a car, 46.7% of whom use it every day. several respondents mentioned car-pool- Almost half of the respondents said they usu- ing, MOL Bubi, MOL Limo and GreenGo ally had at least one passenger in the car, and as means of community transport. The an- if we add the respondents who travel with 3 swers to the following question confirmed to 5 persons at a time, we can reasonably say this for us, as 33% of the respondents are that the overwhelming majority, over 80%, aware of them, and 49% have heard of these did not drive on their own. car-sharing schemes. Most of the respond- It is also striking that slightly over 50% ents have not tried them yet, but the major- of the respondents had a second car in the ity of those answering this question would family. 65% of the car owners said that the be willing to do so, and did not rule out the vehicle makes their everyday life easier, and possibility of trying them. Those who were almost 37% said their car doubled as their not open to this option mostly indicated a work tool. 52.7% generally travel together lack of trust or information as the reason. in the car with friends or colleagues to their In the group of questions aimed at ex- workplace. Their response suggests that they ploring awareness of the sharing or commu- find this more cost efficient, and enjoy the nity economy, the picture was mixed regard- company, but only when this is possible. ing how well-known the schemes or means of They are happy to share their cars with one transport are. As shown in Figure 1, the MOL another if they work at the same place, go to Bubi bicycle rental was the most well-known, the same gym, or go out together. Many of while the community navigation app Waze course opt for public transport, ride a bicy- and the community taxi Uber came second, cle or walk to work, university or school. Sev- with the same number of responses. The lat- eral of the respondents answering no said ter can probably be explained by the fact that that this is impossible to organise, or there Uber’s banning from the Hungarian market are no people interested, even though they made the news, as they have left the coun- would be happy to share their cars. When try since then. They were followed by home asked about the benefits of owning a car, the sharing Airbnb, the carpooling system Osz- respondents mentioned the feeling of inde- kár, the MOL Limo community car hire, and pendence, mobility, the fact that it is always Couchsurfing. Community car hire GreenGo available, it makes everyday life easier, it is and carpooling with BlaBlaCar were the least convenient, no need to fit in with others, known. Yet more than 10% of the respond- and there are no time limits. The drawbacks ents knew none of these opportunities, and typically included high maintenance and we were glad to make respondents aware of servicing costs, lack of parking spaces, and them through the questionnaire.

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Figure 1: Awareness of sharing schemes and opportunities

Do you know / have you heard of the following sharing opportunities?

Yes No 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%

Uber Waze Airbnb BlaBlaCar GreenGo MOL Bubi MOL Limo Couchsurﬁng Oszkár Telekocsi

Not heard of any of the above Source: By the authors based on the questionnaire (2019) N=150

As for how many of them actually used tion, bicycle rental and carpooling, 17% such community services, we found that, said they had used them before, commu- except for Waze, the vast majority had nev- nity taxis had been used by 15%, but those er tried the opportunities listed at all (Fig- who had tried any of the other services was ure 2). With regard to private accommoda- below 10%.

Figure 2: Use of sharing-based services

Which of the following services have you used before? Yes No 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Uber Waze Airbnb BlaBlaCar GreenGo MOL Bubi MOL Limo Couchsurﬁng Oszkár Telekocsi Source By the authors based on the questionnaire (2019) N=150

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Looking ahead as to how open they intended by the legislator (Ercsey, 2020, p. were to trying these services, the outstand- 141). Some of the respondents said that the ing result for Waze (67%) did not come as regulatory environment is not ready to deal a surprise, followed by the MOL Bubi bicy- with these services, while others said that cle rental. They rejected Couchsurfing the convenience was a priority for them so they most (20%), while respondents were inter- were not open to these options. We believe ested in the other services at around the people are different, and we respond to same level, with private accommodation things differently, so some will see an oppor- piquing slightly more interest with 43%. tunity for new human relationships in the The respondents’ opinions were rather various forms of the sharing economy, and varied in this respect. Although the ma- that these contact points will build relation- jority gave a positive response, welcoming ships and communities, while others will eye these solutions, considering them modern them with a great deal of mistrust and preju- and saying they are the future, many are dice. We feel the responses are largely con- mistrustful, particularly if service providers nected to being open to embrace novel and want to use these schemes for tax avoidance. creative ideas. On car-pooling, a number of These models are certainly suitable for tax respondents said it could help cut back pol- avoidance, but choosing a tax regime with lutant emissions and the number of cars on a smaller tax burden is not illegal in it- the road, but others felt this would not tack- self. Choosing a flat-rate tax regime gives le the transport problems on a global scale. Airbnb a considerable taxation advantage The responses from those who had used over those letting their flats out in the long- the services of the sharing economy listed term, but applying this statutory option only here showed that they were generally satisfied becomes unlawful by virtue of a technical with them (Figure 3). The exceptions were and administrative circumvention of the Couchsurfing, MOL Limo and GreenGo car conditions and detailed rules, and using hire, where those unsatisfied with their use the regime for a purpose other than that outnumbered those who were satisfied.

Figure 3: Satisfaction with businesses in the sharing economy

60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Uber Waze Airbnb BlaBlaCar GreenGo MOL Bubi MOL Limo Couchsurfing Oszkár Telekocsi 1: dissatisfied 2 3 4 5: fully satisfied

Source: By the authors based on the questionnaire (2019) N=150

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Waze leads the list by far, which is not Figure 4: Awareness of specific sharing platforms surprising given that it is the simplest to access, all you need to do is download an Have you ever heard of these sharing platforms? application to your mobile phone. This is reflected by the opinions of Waze, as many respondents underlined how useful it can be to avoid traffic jams in cities and 27%

other traffic obstacles, and to calculate yes travel time. In terms of satisfaction with no private accommodation and recommenda- 73% tions for friends, Airbnb stands out from the other services. Yet the opinions vary more, as beside positive responses such as the hosts being nice and helpful, good value for money and flexibility, some com- Source: By the authors based on the questionnaire plained that they did not receive the qual- (2019) N=150 ity promised, or that they did not like the host, on top of the place being below par. account for the majority among those who For all the other services the positive eval- expressed their opinions about the services. uations outnumbered the negative ones They were said to be interesting, useful and both in terms of satisfaction and recom- economical services that make everyday mendations for friends. The only excep- life easier. However, when asked how open tion was Couchsurfing. For car-pooling, they were to try these sharing platforms, the opinions varied from pleasant, lovely less than half of the respondents said they conversations with interesting people, get- would. Less than 39% of the respondents ting to know others and speed, to unreli- would be happy to use such platforms, able drivers with bad manners, reckless while 13% ruled out doing so. driving, cancellation of travel and forced conversations with a stranger instead of Conclusions, recommendations listening to music. The MOL Bubi bike rental offers an experience for some and “We may be dealing with one of the most difficulties for others because the time to significant global business trends and suc- return bikes to another docking station is cess stories of the past and probably the limited. coming few years, which will bring about When asked about other community root and branch changes in the business services such as sharing platforms, almost world. The increasingly fast proliferation of three quarters of the respondents had not the sharing economy is an undeniable fact, even heard of the listed initiatives (Ruk- and it is shaking the classic business envi- kola.hu, miutcank.hu, otthonrol.hu, vedd ronment to its foundations” (Damjanovics berbe.hu, tickething.hu, TaskRabbit), as et al., 2015). shown in Figure 4. The above conclusion alone shows how Those who welcome these ideas and deem significant the topic is, and gives an idea them to be positive and good initiatives about the future where market players,

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state institutions, legislators, authorities vironment to the equation that lays down and consumers will have to adapt to the clear rules guaranteeing safety and protec- business model of the sharing economy. Al- tion for users, and is in the interests of con- though more people in Hungary are aware sumers, we believe there is no need to high- of these services than the number of those light any more how popular such a business who actually use them, as confirmed by the model may become in the future. survey we conducted as well, we believe this is just temporary, as an increasing number Notes of people are likely to use such services in 1 the foreseeable future. https://blog.blablacar.hu/about-us). 2 www.oszkar.com. In addition to the above, the presented 3 www.zipcar.com/cities. model and all the transformation processes 4 https://forbes.hu/uzlet/ez-bubi-autoval-green- we are faced with today may significantly go. affect all economic sectors. Given that the 5 https://mol.hu/hu/molrol/mediaszoba/6535- efficient management and coordination of mol-limo-neven-haromszazas-autoflottaval-indit- kozossegi-automegoszto-szolgaltatast-a-mol/. these new aspects can boost corporate re- 6 www.waze.hu/mi-az-a-waze. sults, and can play a vital role in today’s cor- 7 https://molbubi.bkk.hu/a-molbubi.php. porate practices, businesses must keep up to 8 https://blinkee.city/hu. speed with the changes around them. Using 9 https://rukkola.hu. the necessary tools and thinking anew about 10 https://miutcank.hu/#/csatlakozz. 11 senior management solutions can provide www.etsy.com/press?ref=ftr. 12 www.meska.hu/aboutus. considerable support for the efficiency of 13 www.homeexchange.com/hu. the processes above (Lentner et al., 2011; 14 www.homeexchange.com/hu. Karmazin and Tóth, 2016; Tóth et al., 2017). 15 http://kaptarbudapest.hu/szolgaltatasaink. The European Union is also studying 16 www.couchsurfing.com/about/about-us/. 17 the issue, giving guidance to the Member www.couchsurfing.com/places/europe/hungary. States on how to regulate and approach 18 www.kickstarter.com/press?ref=about_subnav. this business model. Yet the phenomenon 19 www.lendingclub.com/info/statistics.action. has far-reaching positive benefits offering a 20 www.zopa.com/lending/about-lenders. way forward from traditional economic op- 21 https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipédia. erators for example and giving consumers 22 https://clickforwork.hu. direct advantages. It may also be said that traditional companies cannot avoid im- References proving the quality of their services if they Babbie, B. (1996): A társadalomtudományi kutatás are to stay competitive. This situation, how- gyakorlata [The practice of social science re- ever, will bring most benefits for consum- search]. Balassi Kiadó, Budapest. ers. Namely, from a consumer motivation Botsman, R. and Rogers, R. (2011): What’s Mine is perspective there will always be a demand Yours. How Collaborative Consumption is Changing for such services as long as they are budget- the Way We Live. HarperCollins, London, 71–75. friendly, provide a community experience, Csernyik, M.; Jancsik, A. and Michalkó, G. (2018): Megosztás megosztottság nélkül – az Airbnb és are convenient, respond fast and are even a budapesti szálláshelypiac átalakulása [Sharing able to provide unique services of a bal- without splitting – Airbnb and the transforma- anced quality. If you add a regulatory en- tion of Budapest’s accommodation market].

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