Hitwise, a division of Connexity, reveals a dramatic shift in Brits turning to their peers to access goods and services. Revealed in a report released today, the UK’s hunger for the sharing economy has grown exponentially, with website visits increasing more than three times in 2016, compared to last year.
Fast-growing home to a host of new businesses, the UK’s sharing economy spans a range of areas including transport, retail, space and finance.
The Data Day Britain report from Connexity reveals that during 2016, more than 1.35 million Brits visited a leading space sharing site, with those under 35 years old being 60 per cent more likely to visit these sites. Casual room sharing networks like Couchsurfing were most popular amongst the younger audience, while those over 35 made up the majority of the visits to higher-end sites like Airbnb.
When it comes to financial sharing, Brits over 34 are snubbing traditional banks and exploring collaborative investment options online instead, representing nearly double the share of visits to FundingCircle, an online marketplace for loans, and almost triple the number of visits to Rebuilding Society, a charity led by an online community of contributors.
Crowd funding services like Kickstarter or Indiegogo reflect the values of millennials (18- 34), who are more willing to chip in to fund the projects they believe in, despite earning less on the whole.
Nigel Wilson, Managing Director at Hitwise says: “The Data Day Britain Report shines a light on the interesting behaviour changes witnessed amongst Brits online. Whilst the sharing economy is a relatively new industry for some, the appeal of value and personalisation captures all audiences who are benefiting from peer-to-peer relationships newly created by the internet. It’s clear that the benefits offered by the sharing economy have become too apparent to appeal to just a single age group alone and it’s positive to see how the internet is enabling new behaviours to develop amongst Brits”.