The global platform economy has seen rapid growth since the emergence of peer-to-peer marketplaces in the late 1990s and has yet to reach an equilibrium stage.
The rapid development of platform companies, such as Uber, Airbnb, and YouTube, during the last ten years, has been a defining factor of this period.
They have all built platforms that allow users to connect without going through an intermediary like a hotel or taxi company.
Therefore these companies have been able to offer their services at a lower cost by using technology to connect people and businesses directly.
What Is The Platform Economy?
The platform economy is a term used to describe a business model where an intermediary company offers services via an application or website.
The platform’s users are the ones who provide the service but are not necessarily employees of the medium itself.
The most common examples of this type of company include Uber and Airbnb, but many others exist.
Every day, a new platform aims to connect you with people who need your products and services.
The Problem With The Platform Economy
As you can see, the platform economy is a new way to organize the sharing economy. It describes how companies use technology to connect people who want something with those who have something.
For example, if you need a ride somewhere and there’s a driver nearby who wants to make money driving people around, you can connect through the app and get what you need.
But this system has some flaws.
The first problem is that it’s not always clear who owns what—who gets paid what amount when someone buys or rents something.
The second problem is that it can be challenging for users to understand how much they pay for insurance, car rental fees, etc.
So there are a lot of instances where customers are often dissatisfied with the quality of service they receive because there is no traditional way to ensure that everyone follows the rules or meets specific quality control standards.
This leads to less trust in these platforms and more likely to leave negative reviews, which can hurt business if it becomes too widespread across many different platforms simultaneously.
This is where blockchain comes in.
How Blockchain Works for these Platforms
Blockchain technology can solve previously stated problems by providing transparency in all user and creator interactions.
For example, when someone rents their apartment on Airbnb, they can see exactly how much money goes where. Or when someone books an Uber, they can see exactly how much they are paying for a specific distance. Or when someone sends money to you during a Youtube live stream.
For more details, see how blockchain works for these platforms below. Or you can also check this website for more information.
1. Uber
In the past, Uber has been in trouble for its practice of surge pricing, which made it impossible to predict how much you’d pay for your ride.
Then there was the safety issue when many found that many Uber drivers have criminal records or no licenses at all. And previously, a massive data breach exposed 57 million users’ information that the hackers then sold on the dark web.
With blockchain technology, Uber offered customers more transparency about their rides without worrying about violating antitrust laws by releasing data about competitors or giving away too much information about themselves.
That means riders will know exactly what they’re paying for their ride and where those funds are going. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
2. Airbnb
Airbnb is another excellent example of a platform that has already benefited from the use of blockchain.
The company was founded in 2008 and has since become one of the largest hospitality companies in the world. They have over 4 million hosts listing their properties on the platform.
With its success, Airbnb has also created some significant problems for itself. Since its inception, Airbnb has been subject to lawsuits by landlords who say their properties were damaged or destroyed by guests.
Airbnb has also faced criticism because it does not require guests or hosts to provide any form of identity verification before booking a stay or renting out a property.
To address these issues, Airbnb has partnered with Ethereum-based startup Bee Token to create a decentralized version of its platform where users can pay using cryptocurrency instead of credit cards or debit cards.
This system allows renters and owners to pay each other directly through smart contracts that are automatically executed when conditions are met, such as paying rent.
3. YouTube
Youtube is another platform disrupted by blockchain technology.
The video-sharing site allows anyone to create content or upload videos, and now, there are more ways for people who post videos to monetize them and get paid for them.
That’s where blockchain comes in. It allows anybody who owns tokens by buying them from the exchange to pay creators directly through smart contracts.
This means they no longer need to go through third parties like Google Ads or Facebook Audience Network—which means more money for those who work hard to make great content.
An Inevitable Future For Peer-to-Peer Platforms
As the world moves toward a more peer-to-peer economy, we’re seeing significant changes in how people interact and do business.
Peer-to-peer platforms like Uber and Airbnb have radically altered how people travel and stay at home, but they aren’t the only ones who will see disruptions in their business models.
Companies that rely on video platforms like Youtube are also affected by blockchain.
With so much innovation potential, it’s easy to see why startups and other businesses are excited about using blockchain technology in their processes.
However, some significant challenges still need to be overcome before this can happen on a large scale.
Final Thoughts
Blockchain will disrupt the platform economy in the next few years, not just Uber, Airbnb, and Youtube.
Blockchain technology uses a decentralized ledger to record transactions between two parties and allows these businesses to reduce costs by creating a payment system that runs on tokens.
The token can be used across all platforms as currency without any exchange rates or fees.
In addition, blockchain can help with security because it is more difficult to hack than other systems. After all, no central server stores all of your data.
This means that someone could hack into one company’s system.
They would not have access to the information of other companies using the same protocol or platform because they operate separately.
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