Peer-to-Peer Experience Economy: Can Engagement withStrangers Promote Connectivity in Humanity?
Daum Kim, Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus
It’s 9:00am in the morning and I hop into an Uber car
driven by a Portuguese factory owner to get to work. Onarrival at the office, I have a casual conversation withmembers from other startups in the collaborative working
space - to share our struggles of being a startup. We sometimes have lunch together, delivered by a young staff fromDeliveroo. After work, I join a hummus workshop at anIsraeli’s community to learn how to make classic creamyhummus. After enjoying the dinner at the hummus workshop, I go home, not mine but the house of a British family whom I first met two days ago. It is a typical day ofmine; engaging with strangers is part and parcel of mydaily life.
We purchase experiences. Rather than consuming highquality products or premium services, an increasing number of people is spending more on purchasing experiencesthat create unique personal values. According toGoldman et al., the annual personal consumption expenditure on experience-related services in the UnitedStates grew by 6.3% from 2014 to 2016, compared to thatof 1.6% on goods and 4.7% on services (Goldman et al.,2017). The commodification of experience is playing amajor role in our everyday socio-economic behaviour.
This is experience economy, an economy in which goods
and services are sold with the emphasis on an individual’smemorable experience.
Consumers are opting for experiences. (Goldman et al.,2017). Experience is an outcome of both the “stagedevent” and the “individual’s state of mind”, which produce a memorable attachment on part of the individual(Pine & Gilmore, 1998). For the personal value to becreated, consumers have always been desiring experiences; and businesses have been creating more personalised, experience-oriented services for their customers(Pine & Gilmore, 1998).
On the other hand, experience economy in the cyber civilisation assumes a different form. Unlike conventional
experience economy where companies “intentionally”
create consumer experiences, cyber civilisation has
brought experience economy to the level of individual interaction while endowing it with trust: individual peers on
the online platform are experience creators; companies
are platform providers. In peer-to-peer experience economy, peers (guests) first meet peers (hosts) on the online
platform, subsequently communicate with each other tocoordinate the details of their wants and conditions, create
trust, and follow up with experience offline.
The exponential growth of peer-to-peer experience
economy in the cyber civilisation calls for further exploration. To understand its importance, this paper aims todiscover 1) how technology enables peer-to-peer experience economy, 2) what attracts people to participate, and3) how this experience affects our daily socio-economic
behaviour. This paper defines experience as encountering
events that are “inherently personal, existing only in themind of the individual who has been engaged on an emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual level” (Pine& Gilmore, 1998).
Peer-to-peer experience economy not only changes theway we spend our money and time, but also the way weinteract, engage and collaborate with one another; regardless of our culture or language. At the end, I believe thatexperience economy in the cyber civilisation can promote
human connectedness.
Technology Forms Trust
Belk elaborated the importance of trust and bonding insharing activities: “Sharing, whether with our parents,children, siblings, life partners, friends, coworkers, orneighbours, goes hand in hand with trust and bonding”(Belk, 2010). Trust is a complex construct in peer-to-peer
experience economy. For a peer to be able to create anexperience with / from another peer, trust must be established. Today, the technologies implemented in “trustworthy” platforms create trust at the initial stage of thepeers’ interaction. Trust is a fundamental principle inpeer-to-peer experience economy, especially between
anonymous participants.

Key enabler of peer-to-peer experience economy is thecreation of trust on online platforms. The traceability andidentification of peers enables people to form trust online— converting a stranger into a “trustworthy” interacting peer — and let them share their experience.
For example, you may find a suitable host on Airbnb andeventually knock on their door – exchanging “Hajimemasite” (初 めまして / First time meeting you) – in anticipation of spending your next three days at their place.
Five core technologies contribute in building trust between peers: mobile technology, internet, net ID, peer review, and encrypted payment.
1. Mobile technology: utilises hardware and tools totrack users in the physical world, enabling connectivity
and traceability of users.

2. Internet: connects platform between server and clients.
3. Net ID: certifies personal information and individual
accountability.
4. Peer Review: identifies individuals and trust-based
online community.
5. Encrypted online payment: secures online transactions.
These five core technologies provide for the functions oftraceability, user registration, personal ID, and secured
online transaction.
1. Traceability: identifies strangers and tracks activities.
2. User Registration: keeps user profile on the platform
and stores information
3. Personal ID: creates reputation and accountability between peers.
4. Online transaction: provides secured revenue tobusiness and user with encrypted online payment technology.
These core technologies are essential in the expansion ofexperience economy. In order to maximise the value created through experience, companies need to continue implementing technologies on the platform which ensure“trust” between peers.
Trust in Peers Expands Experience Economy
This formation of trust among strangers is at the very forefront of peer-to-peer experience economy. It allows people to experience beyond the “stages” offered byconventional companies; i.e., the experience is becoming
more intense and personalised. It is not just about visitinga large mall with Christmas decorations and anorchestra performance which you are charged for at theentrance; it is about you joining a British Christmas tree
decoration workshop in Japan and an amateur orchestra

concert near your community.
Modern technology expands the conventional model intoa two-sided experience exchange between the provider(peer) and guest (peer). It is different from conventional
experience economy as peers can now sell and buy experience at the same time. In peer-to-peer experience economy, mutual value is created at both ends.

Commodification of experience not only enables peers topurchase, but also to sell — bringing a drastic shift in theexperience economy market. This shift attracts a highnumber of peers to the platform which, in turn, leads toincreased economic activity. This trust among peers also
raises the popularity of experience economy. For example, the popularity of collaborative consumption — a typeof experience economy where peers consume collaboratively — has increased in scale. Forbes discovered that
thanks to Airbnb, hotel bookings in the U.S. fell by 1.3%
(Gerdeman, 2018), while Business Insider found taxi trips
in New York City decreased by 11% due to the popularityof Uber (Muoio, 2017). Indeed, collaborative consumption is no longer a niche behaviour, but heading to be amainstream phenomenon (Batsman, 2013).
The context is of importance since peer to peer experience
economy creates enjoyment and a sense of community
belonging that triggers values beyond monetary benefit.
This joy of engagement and experience motivates people
to shift towards the more personal experience economy.
We Spend More on Peer-to-Peer Experience
The way we spend money in the cyber civilisation is alsochanging. According to McKinsey’s report, millennials
are found to spend the most on experiences (Goldman etal., 2017). The authors found that “a deeper psychological link to long-term intrinsic happiness than buying products” encourages millennials to spend more money onexperiences (Goldman et al., 2017). Money in the cyber
civilisation is spent not simply to cover cost. This shift ineconomy is exemplified by the experience afforded
through collaborative consumption.
As mentioned above, collaborative consumption is a typeof experience economy that demonstrates the very reason
why people engage in it. It is defined in this paper as“peer-to-peer based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing access to goods and services, coordinated throughcommunity-based online services” (Hamari et al., 2015).
In Pais and Provasi’s ‘Sharing Economy: A Step
Towards the Re-Embeddedness of the Economy?’,the authors claim that collaborative consumption has
moved to occupy a ‘vacuum’ left behind by previous economic models of the 20th century, “by experimenting
with collaborative social forms [which are] able to embed economic relations once again in social ones” (Paisand Provasi, 2015). Hamari et al. (2015) discovered enjoyment as the most potent motivator on collaborative
consumption platforms. Based on a quantitative survey ofdata of people registered at such sites, community-belonging and social motivation also play a dominant rolein the repeated usage of collaborative consumption platforms (Bocker and Meelan, 2016).
Although demand for an object or service triggers initialengagement in collaborative consumption platforms(Belk, 2014), the non-commercial value of such platforms
shifts society toward an economy that is ‘more connected
and more embedded in the community’ with a ‘currency’of trust (Sundararajan, 2015; Batsman & Roger, 2010).
As a result, there is a blurred line between commercial

exchanges and social sharing in the emergence of collaborative consumption (Sundararajan, 2015; Pais andProvasi, 2015), indicating the rise of a new form of experience economy.

economy will replace conventional commercial models
remains to be discovered. The impact of our engagementin peer-to-peer experience economy, however, needs tobe further explored.

On the basis of collaborative consumption, society will
be re-oriented around peer-to-peer experience economy,
filling in the ‘vacuum’ left behind by earlier 20th-century
economic models (Pais and Provasi, 2015).

Perhaps, peer-to-peer experience economy leads to truly
global connectedness in the cyber civilisation.

At the same time, the quality of goods and services provided in peer-to-peer experience economy is often lower
than would be expected conventionally. Yet, even thoughmany artists or chefs involved are amateurs, a great number of peers desire to buy their experiences from them.
For today’s peers, it is the experience and personal value
created that matters the most. This also indicates a shift injobs. More amateur or less professional jobs will nevertheless be valued in peer-to-peer experience economy.
Peer-to-Peer Experience Economy Can ConnectPeople.
What intrigues me the most in experience economy is its
foremost position in connecting people in the cyber civilisation. Regardless of language or cultural boundaries,
peers from different parts of the world can trust, interact,engage, and experience together. A French driver may
drive a Vietnamese in Dublin, a Korean family may stayat a Somali family house in Guangzhou, or an Egyptian
might join a Japanese cultural workshop in China.
Peer-to-peer experience economy involves social interaction and engagement between peers beyond verbal communication. Social interaction, the reciprocal and mutual
influence a person or groups of people exert on each otherthrough social contact and communication, makes people
engage more in the experience and creates unforgettable
memories with people from all parts of the world. Our
daily activities, such as travelling, eating, and learning,
involve more interaction and engagement with people,and add more personal value to our lives. Yet, peer-topeer experience extends beyond the field of travel, transportation, education, art, and music; it extends to our entire everyday lifestyle. It is an economy that lets you andI interact with each other - two individuals who would nothave met otherwise - and share our experience - creatinga precious value within each of us.
Conclusion
Watching TV at a stranger’s house, going for a run with agroup of strangers, or even cooking for a group ofstrangers. Today’s technology makes our engagementwith previously unknown peers, so called “strangers”,possible. We are now engaging with previously unknown
people in our daily social and economic activities — andthis is changing the way we spend money and time, theway we make friends, and the way we live.
Could it be that experience economy allows us to becomea more connected society? Peer-to-peer experience economy has led to a novel form of human connectedness inour daily economic activities. Whether this connecting

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