Heidi Dittmann, Björn A. Kuchinke
The sharing of goods and services via Internet platforms is becoming increasingly popular. The article asks the questions and answers whether the sharing economy is, in the first place, from the economic point of view, in fact a complete, revolutionary innovation, or simply a redesign of existing concepts, and secondly, how this trend can be classified from a regulatory economic point of view. In this case, a comparison of the "classic" platforms HRS and myTaxi in comparison to the currently much discussed sharing platforms AirBnB and Uber made. The results show that there are no indications of structural differences between the Standard and the Sharing Economy. The principle of sharing, which is often described as novel, is conceptually similar in its economic core to platforms that are analyzed within the framework of the theory of two-sided or multi-sided markets, and also makes use of proven economic principles. In addition, many benefits of the sharing economy, such as lower prices, stem from regulatory inequality that the sharing economy prefers. In the interests of fair competition, the regulators are in demand here, as an equal treatment of all companies is economically necessary.
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