Global Report Reveals True Size of the Sharing Economy

For Immediate Release

Global Report Reveals True Size of the Sharing Economy

WASHINGTON, JULY 25, 2018—A new index from the Swedish think tank Timbro reveals the true size of the sharing economy world-wide. Iceland tops the list. The US comes in at 53rd place.

“The Timbro Sharing Economy Index is the first global index of the sharing economy. The index has been compiled using traffic volume data and scraped data, and provides unique insight into the driving factors behind the peer-to-peer economy”, says head researcher Alexander Funcke, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.

Previous reports on the size of the sharing economy have employed surveys or self-reported indicators. For the Timbro Sharing Economy Index, researchers have collected monthly traffic data for 286 services in 213 countries. A complete count of active suppliers was also conducted for 23 of the 286 services using automated web scraping techniques, among them Airbnb.

Iceland, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montenegro, Malta, and New Zealand top the list. The US comes in at 53rd place.

“Generally, countries with a mature Internet infrastructure and a tourism-fueled economy have large sharing economies. Consider Iceland. As the Icelandic economy was recovering from the financial crisis, the country saw a spike in tourism. The sharing economy grew rapidly to meet the demand, in a way that is hard to imagine a traditional tourist industry could have done”, says Alexander Funcke.

The largest company in the data set is Airbnb, with almost 1.5 million suppliers judged to be active in an average week. Out of the 286 companies analyzed in the study, one-third supply housing.

“The study shows that the same economic freedom indicators that predict a large traditional economy are also significant predictors for the size of the sharing economy. This goes against the hypothesis that the sharing economy mainly serves to avoid taxes and regulations”, says Karin Svanborg-Sjövall, CEO of Timbro.

TOP 10 COUNTRIES

1. Iceland

2. Turks and Caicos Islands

3. Malta

4. Montenegro

5. New Zealand

6. Croatia

7. Faroe Islands

8. Denmark

9. Aruba

10. Ireland

Download the Timbro Sharing Economy Index here.

Watch the launch live July 25 at 12 PM EDT on Facebook here.

Questions and press and/or speaker inquiries should be addressed to:

Alexander Funcke, Head Researcher

Email: funcke@sas.upenn.edu

Telephone: +1-347-781-8303

Twitter: @funcke

Karin Svanborg-Sjövall, CEO, Timbro

Email: karin.svanborg.sjovall@timbro.se

Telephone: +46 72 517 00 77

Twitter: @KarinSjva