The Sharing Economy租生活：分享型经济在流行

2014-05-09JamesSurowiecki

新东方英语 2014年5期

James+Surowiecki

For most of the past century， Americans have been the worlds greatest consumers. And usually consumption has meant ownership： just before the Great Recession， the average American household owned 2.28 cars， and had more television sets than people. But these days a host of new companies are trying to disrupt1） the paradigm—offering the benefits of consuming without the costs of ownership. Ride-sharing companies such as Lyft， Sidecar， and， in some cities， UberX2）， own no cars themselves. Instead， they sign up ordinary car owners： when you need a ride， you can use their apps to find a driver near you and ask to be picked up. Many other companies are trying to cash in on3） whats often called “the sharing economy.” Airbnb4） now features more than three hundred thousand listings from people making their apartments and homes available for short-term rentals. RelayRides and Getaround let you rent cars from their owners. Boatbound offers boat rentals， Desktime office space， ParkatmyHouse parking spaces. SnapGoods makes it possible for people to borrow consumer goods from other people in their neighborhood or social network. It may not be too long before youre able to pay to sit in a strangers living room and “share” his home theatre.

Just a couple of weeks ago， Uber disclosed that it had raised more than a quarter of a billion dollars in venture-capital funding， most of it from Google. The flood of new money into all these new businesses feels like a mini-bubble in the making. But beneath all the hype5） is a sensible idea： there are a lot of slack6） resources in the economy. Assets sit idle—the average car is driven just an hour a day—and workers have time and skills that go unused. If you can connect the people who have the assets to people who are willing to pay to rent them， you reduce waste and end up with a more efficient system.

In the past， this was hard to pull off7）， because the transaction costs involved in borrowing and lending were high： there was no easy way to find someone who had what you were looking for and no easy way to know if someone was trustworthy. So if you borrowed a lawnmower it was typically from your neighbor. But digital technology has made it much easier for buyers and sellers to find each other quickly， and to evaluate the people theyre trading with. The effect has been to make sharing a much more plausible business model. “We now have hundreds of millions of consumers who are carrying in their pockets powerful computers that are always connected to high-speed networks，” Arun Sundararajan， a professor at N.Y.U.s Stern School of Business and an expert on the sharing economy said. “That makes it possible for people to rethink the way they consume.”

Sharing has also had a boost from the weak economy. People are leery8） of making big up-front9） purchases， and many have had to scramble for10） ways to monetize their time and their assets. More important， there are signs that the ties between consumption and ownership are loosening， particularly among younger people. Studies suggest that Millennials are less interested in owning cars than previous generations have been， and the success of sites such as Netflix11） and Spotify12） show that， at least with some goods， renting can trump ownership. For one thing， people get access to a much wider range of products than they could ever own. “Theres a mind-set that consumers are doing this just to save money，” Sundararajan said. “But I think that whats really compelling about the sharing economy is the variety and expansion of choices that it offers. Instead of being tied to owning one car， I can drive twenty different ones. So I expect this will expand consumption， rather than shrink it.”

Before that happens， though， there are serious hurdles that the sharing economy has to get over. The most obvious of these is regulation. Cities typically have elaborate rules for cabs and limos13） that control drivers， vehicles， fares， and so on. These rules in part reflect the desire of vested14） interests （like cab companies） to protect their businesses and in part consumer concerns about safety and liability. Sharing companies circumvent15） some of those rules， arguing that if you choose to pay someone to give you a ride to the airport—or rent you an apartment—the state shouldnt stop you. Thats an appealing position， but the companies are actually piggybacking16） on the trust that consumers feel in what is typically a highly regulated economy. If these companies become more established， theyll have to reach some kind of accommodation with regulators， perhaps along the lines of17） rules that Californias Public Utilities Commission recently proposed， which would let Sidecar， Lyft， and Uber operate if they implement certain safety and driver regulations.

It isnt just companies and regulators who will have to be flexible， though. Workers will， too， since the sharing economy requires people to function as micro-entrepreneurs. Uber is just a broker， and the drivers arent anyones employees， any more than the landlords in Airbnbs system are. They are all independent contractors， working for themselves and giving the companies a cut18） of the action. This has certain attractions： no boss， the ability to set your own hours， control over working conditions. It also means no benefits， no steady paycheck， and the need to always be hustling； in that sense， it fits all too19） well with the free-agent nation were increasingly becoming. Sharing， it turns out， is often a hell of a lot of work.

在上个世纪的大多数时间里，美国是世界最大的消费市场，而消费通常意味着所有权：就在大衰退之前，平均每个美国家庭拥有的汽车数量为2.28辆，拥有电视机的数量比家庭成员的数量还要多。但现如今，许多新公司都正试图打破这种范式——消费者无需花钱取得所有权便可获取消费的利益。比如像Lyft、Sidecar以及某些城市的UberX这样的汽车共享公司并没有自己的汽车，而是与普通车主签约：当你需要乘车出行时，你可以使用这些公司的应用找到附近的司机，请求搭载。其他许多公司也都试图靠这种人们常称的“分享型经济”来分得一杯羹。房屋租赁社区Airbnb网站现在推出了30多万套房源，这些房源都出自个人，他们将自己的公寓或住房用于短期出租。点对点的汽车租赁服务网站RelayRides和Getaround使你能够从车主手中租车。船舶共享租赁网站Boatbound提供小艇租赁服务，办公空间租赁服务网站Desktime提供办公空间租赁服务，私家停车位租赁服务网站ParkatmyHouse提供停车位租赁服务。社区物品租赁服务网站SnapGoods让人们有可能从自己的邻居或社交网络的网友处借用消费品。也许用不了多久，你就能在付费之后坐在一个陌生人的客厅里“分享”他的家庭影院了。

就在几个星期前，Uber公司透露，它已筹得超过2.5亿美元的风险投资资金，其中大部分来自谷歌。新资金涌入这些新企业，似乎正在形成一个小型泡沫。但在所有炒作背后是一个明智的想法：经济体系中有很多闲置资源。固定资产处于闲置状态中——每辆汽车平均每天只开一小时，劳动者也有未得到利用的时间和技能。如果你可以把拥有资产的人与愿意付费租用资产的人联系起来，就减少了浪费，最终得到一个更高效的系统。

在过去，这很难实现，因为借入与借出所涉及的交易成本很高：要找到拥有你想要的东西的人不容易，要了解此人是否值得信赖也不简单。所以，在过去，如果你要借一台割草机，那通常是从邻居那里借的。但数字技术让买家和卖家能够更方便地迅速找到对方，也更容易评估正在和自己做交易的人。其结果是分享成了一种更可行的商业模式。“我们现在有数以亿计的消费者，他们的口袋里装着始终连接着高速网络的强大计算机，”纽约大学斯特恩商学院教授、分享型经济专家阿伦·孙达拉拉詹说，“这使得人们有可能重新考虑自己的消费方式。”

经济的低迷也助推了分享的发展。人们开始对大额预付款购买行为持谨慎态度，许多人不得不想方设法用他们的时间和资产来挣钱。更重要的是，有迹象表明，消费与所有权之间的关系正在松动，在年轻人中间表现尤甚。研究表明，与前几代人相比，千禧一代对拥有汽车并不是那么感兴趣，而在线影片租赁网站Netflix和在线音乐租赁网站Spotify等站点的成功表明，至少对于某些商品，租用可以胜过所有权。其中一个原因是，人们能使用的产品范围远远超出了其所能拥有的产品范围。“人们有一种思维定式，认为消费者这么做只是为了省钱，”孙达拉拉詹说，“但我认为，分享型经济真正引人关注的地方在于它使选择更加多样化，也使选择的范围更加广泛。我不必受限于只能拥有一辆汽车，相反，我可以驾驶20辆不同的汽车。因此，我预计这将扩大消费，而非减少消费。”

不过，要想实现这一点，分享型经济必须首先克服一些严重障碍，其中最明显的就是监管。各个城市通常为出租车和豪华轿车制定了详尽的规则，对司机、车辆、费用等进行管理。这些规则在一定程度上反映了既得利益者（如出租车公司）保护其业务的愿望，也在一定程度上反映了消费者对安全和责任的关切。分享型企业规避了其中的某些规则，它们声称，如果你选择花钱找人送你到机场——或租给你公寓——州政府就不应该阻止你。这是一个颇能打动人的态度，但这些公司实际上是利用了消费者在通常具有高度约束力的经济体系中才会产生的信任感。如果这些公司变得更加稳定，它们将不得不与监管部门达成和解，或许可以采取与加州公用事业委员会最近提出的规则类似的方式。加州的规则规定，如果Sidecar、Lyft和Uber这几家汽车共享公司执行特定的安全与驾驶员规章，它们就可以运营。

然而，并非只有企业和监管部门需要灵活应变。劳动者亦应如此，因为分享型经济要求人人都发挥微型企业家的功能。Uber公司只是一个经纪人，而司机不是任何人的员工，至多就像是Airbnb系统中的房东。他们都是独立的承包商，为自己工作，然后分给分享型公司一定的交易份额。这有一定的吸引力：没有老板，能够自主安排自己的时间，工作的条件由自己掌控。这也意味着没有福利津贴，没有稳定的工资收入，而且总是需要匆匆忙忙。从这个意义上说，分享型经济非常适合我们这个正在日益形成的自由工作者的国家。结果表明，分享往往意味着需要大量的工作。

1. disrupt [d?s?r?pt] vt. 使中断；扰乱

2. UberX：由交通网络公司Uber开发的针对低端市场的打车服务项目。Uber公司总部位于美国洛杉矶，创立于2009年，推出的打车应用Uber和UberX让乘客能够实时预订出租车和私家车。目前Uber已进入中国市场，中文译名为“优步”。上文提到的Lyft和Sidecar也都是目前广泛使用的打车服务商。

3. cash in on：靠……赚钱，利用

4. Airbnb：一家联系旅游人士和家有空房出租的房主的服务型网络社区，用户可通过网络或手机应用程序发布、搜索度假房屋租赁信息并完成线上预订程序，中文通常译为“空中食宿”。

5. hype [ha?p] n. 天花乱坠的广告宣传；炒作

6. slack [sl?k] adj. 闲散的

7. pull off：努力实现

8. leery [?l??ri] adj. 警惕的；怀有戒心的，戒备的

9. up-front：预付的，先期的

10. scramble for：争夺

11. Netflix：世界最大的在线影片租赁服务商，中文通常译为“网飞”。

12. Spotify：全球最大的流媒体音乐服务软件之一，实现了P2P这一技术的合法化，中文通常译为“声破天”。

13. limo [?l?m??] n. 豪华高级轿车

14. vested [vestid] adj. 既定的；既得的；绝对的