Household Digital Consumer Behaviour 2023

Introduction

This chapter looks at the ‘sharing economy’, also called the collaborative economy which is based on shared resources, like a room, a service, reselling, a skill or a car, between individuals and facilitated by the internet, in its majority practice as a temporary exchange. Examples of this practices are Airbnb, CouchSurfing, RoomShare, BlaBla Car, Hailo  LiftShare, etc.

‘Non-collaborative’ economy involves the arranging of accommodation, transport or other services on a digital platform from a commercial enterprise (non-collaborative economy) such as a hotel, travel agency, etc. rather than from a private provider.

This chapter highlights that the use of the internet for accessing the ‘shared economy’ has decreased on 2022 levels, but still over half of internet users use the internet for accessing transport services of enterprises such as local bus, train, etc. via the web or app (non-collaborative economy).

Decrease in the accommodation sharing/collaborative economy in 2023

Key findings of internet users who used the internet if the previous there months:

• Renting accommodation from a private person (via website or app) decreased in 2023 – 10% of internet users reported booking accommodation online in this way in 2023 compared with 15% in 2022, a decrease of five percentage points. See Table 5.1 and and PX Stat Table ICA163 for comparisons with 2022.
• Four in ten (40%) chose to arrange accommodation on a digital platform from a commercial enterprise (non-collaborative economy) such as a hotel, travel agency, etc. rather than from a private provider, down four percentage points on the same period in 2022. 
• Males were more likely than females to organise accommodation with a hotel, travel agency, etc. – 42% of males compared with 39% of females. Males were more likely than females to book accommodation online from a private person (sharing economy – one in nine (11%) males compared with 9% of females. 
• Just 2% of internet users engaged in transport collaborative economy activity by arranging transport from another private person (via a digital platform such as BlaBla Car, LiftShare, etc.), unchanged from 2022. 
• Nearly six in ten (55%) of respondents surveyed arranged transport from a transport enterprise (local bus, train, flight ticket, taxi ride, etc.) via a website or app in 2023, a decrease of six percentage points from 2022.