As a kid, sharing meant letting your friends play with your favourite toy. Now, as grown-ups living in a hyper connected world, sharing has taken on a completely new meaning. The idea of collaborative consumption, or the sharing of idle resources like goods, vehicles and skills with peers for a fee, lies at the heart of the sharing economy.

Society has shown a robust appetite for this business model. Industry research suggests that the sharing economy has grown by US$15 billion in seven years — that’s faster than Facebook, Google and Yahoo’s US$11 billion combined growth! This is being fuelled in part by a shift in the collective psyche; more people are discounting the value of personal ownership and enjoying the convenience and affordability of having their lifestyle needs fulfilled on demand. Of course, technology has played a huge role in this by connecting peer buyers with peer sellers and making the process for both sides simple and smooth.

Here’s a look at three sharing economy providers in Singapore and how they’re wooing consumers with their unique value propositions.

Grab a ride… any ride.

Ride-sharing services are a pioneer of the sharing economy and lauded as an environmentally conscious movement. Researchers at UC Berkeley have found that for every car made widely available for sharing in the United States, more than 10 are taken off the cities’ congested roads. In Singapore, where the government is advocating a ‘car-lite’ lifestyle, ride-sharing services like Grab have taken off.

Grab, which operates mainly in Southeast Asia, has also been pretty innovative in its offerings. It now offers six ways to ride:

  • GrabTaxi – A licensed taxi that runs on standard metered fare
  • GrabCar – A private car driven by a registered GrabCar driver with a fixed upfront fare
  • GrabFamily – A GrabCar with child booster seats for commuting with children aged 4 to 7 years
  • GrabShare – The carpooling version of GrabCar that takes up to two groups of two riders each time
  • GrabHitch – A social carpooling option with non-commercial drivers, also with a fixed upfront fee
  • GrabCoach – Large vehicles (13, 23 and 40-seater coaches) available for booking on-demand or in advance
  • GrabShuttle – Similar to an express bus service, GrabShuttle plies predefined routes, like from residential areas to the central business district, mainly on weekdays

In October 2016, Grab became CapitaLand’s Strategic Mobility Partner. The online and offline (O2O) collaboration will see Grab services and technologies integrated with CapitaLand’s network of integrated developments, shopping malls, serviced residences, offices and homes in Singapore.

Commuters taking Grab rides to or from any CapitaLand property can expect to enjoy perks ranging from special discounts to STAR$® rewards in CapitaLand’s CapitaStar loyalty programme and priority bookings. They can also look forward to seasonal promotional codes for ride discounts. This is being implemented in phases from 1 November 2016.

For more information on Grab, visit www.grab.com.

Bike to work with Otter

Bicycling looks set to be part of Singapore’s car-lite drive, which has included numerous pilot Car-Free Sunday schemes. To pave the way for cycling as a sustainable commuting option, bicycles are now officially allowed on footpaths, in addition to dedicated cycling paths and shared paths. The Land Transport Authority hopes to see four times as many people cycling or using personal mobility devices in the next five to 10 years.

Cue: bicycle sharing services!

The oBike app also tells you how far you have to walk to collect your shared bicycle and how much it'll cost.
The oBike app also tells you how far you have to walk to collect your shared bicycle and how much it'll cost.

A few bicycle-sharing services have quietly made their way to Singapore, including oBike. Touted as the country’s first station-less bike sharing platform, oBike lets you search for the bicycle closest to you and reserve it. Once you’ve reached your destination, just lock and leave it at any public parking area .

CapitaLand is also doing its part to support green mobility with more than 500 bicycle bays in 16 properties. About 190 of these bays are located in seven properties in the civic and central business district — CapitaGreen, Capital Tower, One George Street, Six Battery Road, Twenty Anson, HSBC Building and Raffles City Singapore — making cycling a feasible commuting option. Capital Tower and CapitaGreen even offer shower facilities for cyclists to freshen up before their work day.

If you’re keen on burning fat instead of fossil fuels, get started with oBike at https://o.bike.

Would you Leendy me that?

Chances are, you own things that you don’t use but can’t bear to throw away. Wouldn’t it be great if you could swap that for something that you do need?

Leendy, a sharing economy app, hopes to help you do just that. This sharing economy provider is not unlike an online marketplace. You can post something that you don’t need and exchange it for something that you do. The big difference is that you can change your mind. After a few weeks, you can swap back your items if you like, or keep them if you’re happy with your exchange.

By facilitating the peer exchange of pre-loved items, Leendy helps to reduce waste.
By facilitating the peer exchange of pre-loved items, Leendy helps to reduce waste.

Browsing through Leendy, it seems to offer mainly daily household items, electronic gadgets, books and magazines, with users specifying swap timeframes ranging from one week to “as long as you like”.

Try it out at http://leendy.com.