WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is holding a workshop today to explore issues relating to emerging Internet peer-to-peer platforms—often called the “sharing” economy—and the economic activity these platforms facilitate. Among the public comments to be deliberated in the hearing is the first-cross platform user satisfaction survey in the sharing economy, released earlier today by TrustCloud.
With over 10,000 people reached and over 500 users responding with comments, the depth and breadth of the TrustCloud survey will serve the entire sharing economy with better information on user satisfaction with direct peer-to-peer transactions that sharing technology has enabled.
Use of the sharing economy has exploded over the past five years, with people making extensive use of services such as Uber for a ride to dinner, TaskRabbit to find someone to help with a household project, or Etsy for a handcrafted gift. By some estimates, it is already a $15 billion market.
“The results of our survey show that this is not a small market involving only small transactions. Around 37 percent of the survey respondents had spent over $500 on their transactions,” said Miles Spencer of TrustCloud.
While two-thirds (66 percent) of the respondents were somewhat or fully satisfied with their experience with the sharing economy, roughly 18 percent were not satisfied and had no satisfactory recourse to resolve the issue.
“The sharing economy is a trust economy,” continued Spencer. “Yet the survey reveals that user satisfaction is a profound problem for the industry. As the sharing platforms scale up, the old processes for resolving issues are breaking down. In a $15 billion market, with an 18 percent dissatisfaction rate, hundreds of millions of dollars are at risk here, from the customers, the providers, and the platforms.”
The survey further showed that 22 percent of dissatisfied users thought a third-party referee would have helped resolved the problem, and 19 percent all users thought a satisfaction guarantee would have been helpful.
The FTC workshop is being held today, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm at the Constitution Center in Washington, DC. The workshop will consider whether existing regulatory frameworks can be responsive to sharing economy business models while maintaining appropriate consumer protections. It also will examine how various regulatory choices may affect competition and consumers.
For a complete copy of the study, or to take the satisfaction survey (as a user or provider), please visit the TrustCloud Website.
About TrustCloud
TrustCloud provides enables trust, safety and quality in the Sharing Economy by offering a proprietary TrustScore to sharing providers and the “Peer Protect” satisfaction guarantee to consumers. TrustCloud is based in San Francisco, CA.
