The first quarter of cleantech was a mix of good and bad news. Avis’ purchase of Zipcar and Silver Spring Networks’ long-awaited IPO finally occurring were further signs of thawing capital markets and movement in the acquisition space. However, in both situations valuations were lower than hoped, a sign of how investors view cleantech. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With 9 billion people set to live on the planet by 2050, sharing — enabled by IT — will be one of the most important tools to emerge and companies that build brands now will be well positioned to capitalize on this future. Read more »
European vacation rentals site HouseTrip has everything going for it right now: not least fast growth and a fresh new round of funding. Co-founder Arnaud Bertrand lays out why he thinks his site can carry on winning — and reveals the scale of his ambition. Read more »
Owning physical items — cars, apartments, office space — will be increasingly inefficient for a global market. This is driving a greater interest in the share economy. Companies like Zipcar and Airbnb have paved the way here, but a host of startups have surfaced recently, too. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
CouchSurfing, a former non-profit that helps travelers find a place to stay, has raised a $15 million Series B round, led by General Catalyst Partners. The money comes a year after it raised $7.6 million and incorporated with a B Corp certification. Read more »
We’ve spilled a lot of virtual ink recently on the peer-to-peer marketplaces that want to update the “Craigslist for Facebook” era. But a crop of new exchange-oriented startups are reviving something else too: bartering. Read more »
While web sharing sites — like Airbnb and Zipcar — have an environmental angle, potential users of these services aren’t all that motivated by the environmental benefits, according to a new survey. Instead web sharing users are motivated by saving money and by having easy access. Read more »
UPDATED: The tragic story, reported by The New York Times’s Ron Lieber last month, in which a man rented a car in Boston via peer-to-peer car sharing company RelayRides and wound up seriously injuring four people while losing his life raised a familiar question for the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
For many women, the closet can become a place for outfits they no longer wear, crowding out room for items they’d like to buy. Threadflip, a new social marketplace for clothing, is launching today to help address that dilemma. Read more »
New York City-based Spinlister is looking to create a peer-to-peer marketplace for bikes, connecting those who have an excess supply with users who want to ride but aren’t quite ready to own or buy their own two-wheeled vehicles yet. It’s like RelayRides or Airbnb for bikes. Read more »
Airbnb expects a ton of bookings during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but it wasn’t the only game in town. So the U.S.-based startup is taking out some of the competition, with the acquisition of Crashpadder, which is its biggest competitor in the U.K. market. Read more »
TaskRabbit is launching a series of video interviews with “founders, entrepreneurs, executives, journalists and consumers” who are authorities in the Collaborative Consumption space. The series, called Collaboratively Speaking, kicks off with a conversation between TaskRabbit founder Leah Busque and RelayRides founder Shelby Clark. Read more »
Austin at SXSW is a prime example of the kind of flexibility that Airbnb can provide to both residents and visitors during a major event. With three weeks left before the conference starts, the San Francisco-based startup has already surpassed last year’s bookings. Read more »
Tesla has decked out its Model X, an SUV-minivan hybrid, with innovative design features that, along with a relatively affordable price tag, could attract a mainstream audience. This research note examines why Tesla will be the brand to watch in the electric vehicle market. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Zipcar turned its first quarter profit in a decade recently. Zipcar’s CEO, Scott Griffith, answers questions about the future of the company and the $10B global car sharing market. Read more »
Car sharing company Zipcar says it plans to offer cargo vans — Zipvan — in a pilot project in San Francisco in response to customers showing an interest in renting large Zipcars by the hour for moving stuff around cities. Read more »
When people think about cleantech, they typically think about solar panels or converting biomass into fuel. But the momentum right now in cleantech is as much about connectivity and how it can drive energy efficiency as it is about advancing sources of renewable energy. Read more »
The momentum right now in cleantech is as much about connectivity and how it can drive energy efficiency as it is about advancing sources of renewable energy. And as the web and mobile connectivity change our consumer experiences, the opportunities to redefine cleantech are rich, and they are already happening. This research note examines the cleantech space in that context and analyzes the car-sharing, home-energy-management and smart-grid sectors and their relevant companies to see how connectivity will play into their future endeavors. Companies mentioned in this report include RelayRides, Opower, Silver Spring Networks and Nest. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The GigaOM RoadMap conference on Nov. 10 gathered leaders and visionaries to discuss how, thanks to technological and generational shifts, society as a whole is becoming more connected — not only in the media we consume and the social networks we use but also in the way we interact with devices and manage our resources. This research note takes a look back on the event in order to analyze this new era of connectivity across various industries, from Jack Dorsey’s idea of becoming “more human,” not less, to the concept of “invisible technology” and data, the fuel of the new century. Companies mentioned in this report include Airbnb, Netflix and Twitter. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Auto giant GM is making its first move into car sharing by partnering with San Francisco-based peer-to-peer car sharing startup RelayRides, using its communications system OnStar. RelayRides also says it is in advanced discussions with GM about an investment. Read more »
Cleantech, meet mobile. The intersection between these two industries has grown over the past twelve months as companies increasingly look to use smartphones as a platform to enable their services. This trend will accelerate in the future as more and more companies realize that mobile phones ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
While many of you know this to be anecdotally true, here’s an official study on the trend: According to the University of California Transportation Center, car sharing leads to the reduction of personal vehicles owned. Read more »
After building up millions of users in the last eight years, DIY travel website Couchsurfing has stepped it up by going for-profit and taking venture funding. But some aggrieved users feel that they’ve become pawns in a game… and they aren’t happy. Read more »
With the stock market in flux, do tech startups stand a chance when it comes to luring investors? To find out, we polled GigaOM readers on what’s hot, what’s not, which sectors might favor buyouts versus IPOs and how it all will change in the near ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Collaborative consumption refers to a class of new businesses that use the web to enable the sharing and bartering of goods and services — from cars to apartments to office space. The market evolved out of the first generation of general-purpose P2P marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay and is now tied to the way we use the Internet and cell phones. GigaOM Pro conducted a survey of GigaOM readers to gauge the popularity of the collaborative consumption movement, which services readers are using and the impact certain security concerns will have on the growth of industry. This research note examines the survey’s results and provides analysis on the current state and future of the web-sharing market. Companies mentioned in this report include Zipcar, RelayRides, thredUP and Airbnb. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free GigaOM Pro trial subscription. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
There’s been an explosion of interest in web-sharing services, a growing movement of lending and bartering services that create economical and sustainable consumption methods. Take a few minutes to tell us how you feel about this movement in our new survey, and maybe even win prizes. Read more »
The emerging web-sharing movement, which includes startups like Airbnb, RelayRides, and ThredUP, has its roots in the maturing way that people use the Internet and cell phones, and its future economy will rise around location, niche groups and capital-intensive, under-utilized and time-sensitive objects. For entrepreneurs looking ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With all the attention (not all of it good) that collaborative consumption companies like Airbnb have been getting lately, we’ve been mulling over some tips for entrepreneurs looking to either start one of these companies now, or hoping to make one of these companies succeed. Read more »
The Airbnb horror stories that have emerged in recent days expose the biggest pain point for the economy that has built up around using the web to share “stuff,” from apartments to cars to tools: security. Read more »
Ownership is old-school. The folks at Collaborative Lab have put together this infographic and startup list to highlight all the innovation that is happening around using the web to share “stuff.” Read more »
While using the web to share “stuff” is still a relatively new concept, the business model is being adopted by a growing number of companies, and I think it has started to reach a tipping point and become more mainstream. Read more »
