Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms The Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms has been produced with the technical assistance of 1 TABLE OF CONTENT A. Background and Context B. Purpose of the mission C. Methodology D. Preliminary Findings E. Selection of platforms for further analysis F. Analysis of the platforms G. Recommendations H. About Jamaity The Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms has been produced with the technical assistance of 2 A. Background and Context Within the framework of developing the second generation of the Sharing Economy Platform Youth Without Borders (YWB) in coordination with the Innovation for Change MENA Hub, a mapping will be conducted with the objective of analyzing and understanding the existing similar platforms in the MENA region (their work, target, challenges faced, needs, contain and potential growth and development.). The second generation of the Sharing Economy Platform will be developed to create an inclusive and supportive space. Comprised of civil society organizations from the MENA region, this generation will promote the exchange of services and knowledge among the to strengthen their capacities and encourage dynamic fundraising that enables civic activism across the MENA region. By Conducting a comparative analysis of the existing Sharing Economy Platforms in the MENA region and an assessment of potential features to be developed, this mapping will help form the following: a clear understanding on how to build and manage a platform, a deeper idea on how to set the objectives of the platform, the services, the rules and the benefits of the members. B. Purpose of the mission This mission consists in conducting a mapping on the Sharing Economy Platforms exiting in the MENA region. It aims to discover, understand, and analyze these platforms in order to prepare a need assessment on how the second generation of the Sharing Economy Platform should look like. The expected results of the mapping are: • Conduct a research to identify existing similar platforms in the MENA region; • Set up a selection criteria’s through the research; • Develop a questionnaire to be developed based on the selection criteria; • Conduct telephone calls and online interviews with CSOs or platform managers; • Disseminate online surveys through emails, regional CSOs networking platforms and social media; • Produce a report to include the analysis of the findings and recommendations. C. Methodology The methodology is articulated around two major parts: Part 1: Benchmarking A benchmarking exercise will be held by Jamaity’s team to identify the existing platforms in the MENA region, their strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. This will happen through the steps mentioned below: 1 - Listing of existing platforms in the region The first part of the mapping will be quantitative providing an overview on the existing platforms available in the MENA region. For each platform, the following information will be provided: - Mandate of the platform - Services - Content including its format - Target Group - Languages used - Positioning of the platform - Geographic mandate of the platform The information will be gathered mainly through online research and the network of Jamaity in MENA Countries. This first part will lead to preliminary observations on: The Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms has been produced with the technical assistance of 3 - Geographic repartition of the platforms - Languages used by the platforms - Target groups - Social Media Platforms used by these platforms. 2- Focusing on certain platforms In order to ensure a quantitative mapping, a specific number of platforms will be focused on. The selection will happen by establishing an evaluation grid to identify the platforms that the mapping will highlight the most. The Evaluation Grid of the Identified platforms In order to choose a specific number of platforms for further analysis, the following criteria will be adopted: - The platform’s popularity or positioning (number of users). - The quality of information available on the platform. - The user’s interaction with the platform and/or its social media channels. - The platform is still active. - The availability of information. 3- Analysis of the selected platforms Ten platforms will be selected. For each of the selected platforms, Jamaity will provide a well detailed analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. The following aspects of the selected platform will be analyzed: - General information about the platform: including the name of the platform, links, organization or the people who operate it or are in the origin, specific context for launching the platform, purpose and mission, partnerships, target audiences, languages used and the nature of interaction with the users. - Alexa Rank1: Alexa is a global pioneer in the world of analytical insight. Alexa provides a global traffic rank that measures how a website is doing in relation to all other sites on the web over the last 3 months at any given point. The rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site's estimated average of daily unique visitors and its estimated number of page views over the last 3 months at any given point. - The number of shares on Facebook: which will be an indicator of the presence of the identified platforms on Facebook. - The social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Youtube and many others. - The services available on the platform: a list of the services, format, resources and tools available for visitors in addition to the clarity of content, user friendly, or any other links integrated in the platform and social media accounts. - The most popular services of the platform. - Technical aspects of the platforms: the softwares used to develop the platforms - Users Experience: The analysis of the user experience in the platforms is based on Nielsen Norman Group’s2 10 general principles for interaction design namely visibility of system status, match between system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, help and documentation. - Key success factors of the platform and its challenges - Other observation on the platform 1 https://www.alexa.com/ 2 https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ The Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms has been produced with the technical assistance of 4 In addition, an analysis of the performance of the platforms will be provided. This Analysis focuses on the front-end performance of the platforms including elements like general site structure and images. PageSpeed and YSlow scores3 tell you how well your front-end is optimized for loading time, and even though they are important, they are only a half of the determining factor. All the information will be gathered through online surveys, skype meetings, phone calls and online interviews with CSOs or platform’s managers. Part 2: Need Assessment: The need assessment will combine an Identification of the needs and gaps within the selected platforms and the CSOs working on shared economy in the MENA region through: - Focus Groups: to help collect more in-depth thoughts and opinions about the Shared Economy Platforms that need to be developed. - Interviews: with persons working in the most renowned platforms that have been studied. The objective is to get in depth information about the opportunities, the perspectives about their platforms, and the potential platforms that need to be developed. It will also provide and analysis of the type of services that need to be developed. After gathering all the information, Jamaity will work on including the best practices, findings, and recommendations for the development of similar platforms. D. Preliminary Findings: ● Platforms identified across the Mena Region - The total number of platform Identified is 41 platforms distributed as indicated in the graphic ‘Platforms identified across the MENA” - Tunisia contains the highest number with 9 identified platforms. - Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia contain the lowest number with only 1 identified platform. - Palestine, Bahrain, and Qatar do not contain any Shared Economy Platform. - The Gulf States contain only 5 platforms - The number of the platforms identified in North Africa is 18 - The number of the platforms identified in the Middle East is 19 - There are 5 platforms working on a regional level - Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria seem to be a hub for shared economy. This is due to the dynamics of the civil society in these countries. ● Languages Used - Only 1 platform is in local dialect (Youth’more Tunisia), The rest of the platforms adopt Arabic, French and English - Only 1 platform, in Iraq, uses also Kurdish as one of the languages of the platform - Only 5 platforms are exclusively in English - 72% of the platforms use Arabic as one of languages. - The other languages are mostly English or French. 3 https://gtmetrix.com/blog/pagespeed-and-yslow-are-half-the-battle/ The Mapping of Shared Economy Platforms has been produced with the technical assistance of 5 - 75% of the platforms identified use at least two main languages - 25% of the platforms identified use one language - Among these 25% of the platforms that use only one language, 1 is in Tunisian dialect, 4 in French, 5 in Arabic and 5 in English. These findings confirm that Arabic is the first language used to interact with users in MENA countries along with English or French depending on whether the platform is in Maghreb Countries or Mashreq Countries. ● Target Groups - The summary of the target groups of the identified platforms is as follows: student’s professionals, student graduates, youth, donors, employers, job seekers, citizens, volunteers, civil society actors, research experts, practitioners and civil society activists. - Considering that student professionals, student graduates, and job seekers are Youth groups, then ⅓ of the identified platforms target youth groups. - The percentage of platforms targeting volunteers, civil society actors and Organizations represent 62% of the total number of platforms.