The sharing economy: definition, examples and environmental impact

What is the sharing economy?

The sharing economy is an economic model in which individuals rent, share or exchange under-used assets and services — cars, homes, clothes, tools, skills — directly with each other through digital platforms such as Uber, Airbnb and Vinted. Access replaces ownership: users pay to use goods rather than to own them, and platforms take a commission for matching supply and demand.

There are five main types of collaborative platform:

1. platforms for the creation of common goods, such as Wikipedia;
2. platforms for the sharing of costs, such as BlaBlaCar or Liftshare;
3. platforms for the contribution economy, such as Waze;
4. intermediary marketplaces for goods, such as Vinted or eBay;
5. platforms for on-demand services, such as Uber or Just Eat.

Several factors explain the rise of this model over the past fifteen years:

• the digital boom — smartphones, geolocation and online payment made instant matching possible;
• pressure on household budgets, which makes renting and second-hand buying attractive;
• environmental concerns, increasingly pressing, which favour reuse over new production;
• a changing relationship with ownership, especially among younger generations, who value access over possession.

In this way, the sharing economy is shaking up the established socio-economic model, for consumers and companies alike, by mobilising idle resources held by individuals and offering new services alongside traditional ones. To prevent unfair competition and protect consumers and workers, public authorities — both nationally and at European level — have progressively built a legal framework for platform operations (see the regulation section below).

How big is the sharing economy in 2026?

A market worth hundreds of billions

The reference forecast long used for the sector comes from PwC: in 2013, sharing economy companies in five key sectors (peer-to-peer accommodation, car sharing, peer-to-peer finance, online staffing and streaming) generated around $15 billion in revenue, a figure PwC projected would reach $335 billion by 2025. Reality has broadly caught up with that forecast: The Business Research Company estimates the global sharing economy at $244.8 billion in 2025, rising to around $310 billion in 2026 — annual growth of roughly 26%.

Some segments are growing even faster. The global second-hand clothing market alone is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing about 10% a year according to the ThredUp/GlobalData 2025 Resale Report — a shift with direct consequences for the ecological footprint of fashion.

The sharing economy in the UK

Following an independent review commissioned by the government in 2015 (Unlocking the sharing economy) on how the UK could become a global hub for sharing platforms, the Sharing Economy UK trade body was created to represent the sector's businesses. It lobbies the government on consumer and worker protection and highlights the environmental benefits of sharing, such as lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and less waste through recycling and reuse.

The gig economy has become a structural part of the UK labour market: according to Stand Out CV, the number of Britons working in the gig economy roughly tripled between 2016 (2.4 million) and 2022 (an estimated 7.25 million). Uber is the country's largest sharing economy operator: after the 2021 Supreme Court ruling (see the regulation section), it reclassified more than 70,000 UK drivers as workers.

Sharing economy examples: the biggest platforms in 2026

The sharing economy now spans every sector — transport, housing, food, clothing, finance and services. The table below sums up the scale reached by the best-known platforms:

Sources: company annual results and impact reports, linked in the sections below.

Uber and the sharing economy

Without owning a fleet of vehicles, Uber has become the world's largest mobility platform. In 2025, it recorded 13.56 billion trips (up 20% in a year), 202 million monthly active users and $52 billion in revenue, relying on millions of self-employed drivers and couriers. Competitors such as Bolt and FREE NOW have adopted the same model, but Uber remains the reference platform — and the symbol of the sector's labour controversies.

Airbnb and the sharing economy

Airbnb lets individuals rent out their home — or a spare room — to travellers. Since its creation in 2008, the platform has grown to more than 5 million hosts, and in 2025 guests booked 533 million nights and experiences, generating $12.2 billion in revenue for the company. Airbnb has not only shaken up the travel industry: in cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam and London, its growth has pushed local authorities to cap short-term rentals to protect the housing market.

Vinted and second-hand fashion

The Lithuanian marketplace Vinted has become Europe's leading platform for second-hand clothing. In 2025, the value of goods sold on Vinted grew 47% to €10.8 billion, with €1.1 billion in revenue and a €62 million net profit — proof that reuse can be a profitable business model. Buying and reselling clothes instead of discarding them extends garment lifetimes, one of the most effective levers to reduce fashion's footprint (see our guide to clothing recycling).

BlaBlaCar and Too Good To Go

Two European platforms show the breadth of the model. BlaBlaCar, the world's leading long-distance carpooling app, connects around 30 million active members in 21 countries who share car journeys — and their costs. Too Good To Go, the Danish anti-food-waste app, lets users buy unsold food from shops and restaurants at a discount: in 2025 its community saved 157 million meals from the bin, avoiding an estimated 424,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions.

Is Netflix part of the sharing economy?

Netflix is often cited as a sharing economy example, but that is incorrect. Netflix is an on-demand subscription business: subscribers pay a fixed monthly fee for access to content the company itself licenses or produces — no individual shares an under-used asset with another. The same goes for Spotify and other streaming services. They belong to the access economy, not the sharing economy.

The sharing economy: advantages and disadvantages

By connecting providers and consumers directly, the sharing economy cuts costs, mobilises idle assets and creates flexible income opportunities. But the model also raises serious questions about worker protection, safety and unfair competition with regulated businesses:

Is the sharing economy good for the environment?

The honest answer is: it depends on what is being shared. Sharing is often presented as inherently green — a claim worth examining as critically as any other, just like corporate greenwashing. The evidence points in two directions.

Where sharing genuinely cuts emissions

Reuse and higher asset utilisation are core principles of the circular economy, and several segments deliver measurable gains:

• Second-hand clothing: research for the European recycling federation EuRIC found that reusing a garment has an environmental impact up to 70 times lower than producing a new one, saving around 3 kg of CO2 per item — and a 2024 Japanese study estimated the emissions of a second-hand item at about a third of a new one;
• Carpooling: an independent study by Le BIPE (BDO Group) calculated that BlaBlaCar carpoolers saved 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 in one year by filling seats that would otherwise travel empty — a form of sustainable transport;
• Food waste: Too Good To Go's 157 million meals saved in 2025 avoided an estimated 424,000 tonnes of CO2e, since wasted food carries all the emissions of its production, transport and disposal.

The rebound effect: when sharing increases emissions

Other segments have been shown to increase emissions. The most documented case is ride-hailing: a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists across seven US cities found that a typical ride-hailing trip generates about 69% more CO2 than the trip it replaces, because drivers spend roughly 42% of their mileage "deadheading" (circulating without a passenger) and because many rides replace walking, cycling or public transport rather than private car journeys — a non-pooled trip still emits about 47% more than an equivalent private car trip.

Economists call this the rebound effect: when sharing makes a service cheaper and more convenient, people consume more of it, and the money saved is often re-spent on other carbon-intensive goods — cheap accommodation can encourage extra flights, and ultra-affordable second-hand fashion can fuel overconsumption instead of replacing new purchases. The environmental case for the sharing economy therefore rests on substitution (sharing instead of buying new or driving alone), not on simply adding new consumption on top. To judge your own choices, our guide to sustainable development and the pillars behind it is a good starting point.

How is the sharing economy regulated?

European Union: the Platform Work Directive

The EU adopted Directive (EU) 2024/2831 on platform work in October 2024 — the first law in the world designed specifically for the gig economy. Member states must transpose it by 2 December 2026. Its two pillars are:

• a legal presumption of employment: platform workers are presumed to be employees when the facts show the platform directs and controls their work, and it is up to the platform — not the worker — to prove otherwise;
• rules on algorithmic management: platforms must be transparent about the automated systems that assign work, set pay and rate workers, and important decisions (such as deactivating an account) must be subject to human review.

United Kingdom: the Uber ruling and its aftermath

The UK reached a similar outcome through the courts. In February 2021, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Uber drivers are "workers", not self-employed contractors — entitling tens of thousands of drivers to the national minimum wage, holiday pay and rest breaks. The judgment reshaped the whole UK gig economy, and platforms operating in Britain have since had to build worker protections into their model. Short-term rentals are also under scrutiny: hosts in London may not let an entire home for more than 90 nights a year without planning permission.

For the sharing economy's green claims themselves — "sustainable travel", "climate-friendly rides" — the same advertising rules apply as for any company: see our guide to greenwashing regulation in the EU, UK and US.

To go further, discover more practical guides on protecting the environment and reducing your footprint.