# Section 2 Transformations Resulting from Social Media Growth

This section develops an understanding of trends in the sharing economy, one of the transformations resulting from social media growth. We also analyze, by means of a survey, consumer interest in the sharing economy and some the issues caused by the expansion of the sharing economy.

Furthermore, the broad penetration of social media has brought with it the potential for problematic posts to be disseminated widely in an instant and for posters to be exposed to unexpected social backlash. Therefore, we will examine developments in the problems of going viral and flaming, as another transformation resulting from social media growth, and analyze, by means of a survey, user awareness of these problems and future issues.

### 1. The sharing economy: a new economy driven by social media

## (1) What is the sharing economy?

The sharing economy typically refers to services that list idle assets owned by individuals that are for hire (assets include skills and other intangibles as well). The sharing economy is a win-win situation where lenders can earn money from their idle assets while renters can make use of the assets without owning them. For such services to function, there has to be an assurance of trust between the parties. This is where social media comes into play, with its unique ability to operate loosely arranged community functions founded on the exchange of information. Originating from Silicon Valley, the sharing economy has now expanded globally.

## (2) Demand for sharing-economy-style services

We asked Japanese consumers about their intention to use two different types of sharing-economy-style services that are gaining traction overseas. The results found that 22.9 percent of the respondents had an intention to use (“would like to use” + “would consider using”) “services that provide transportation to a destination in the driver’s personal car” and 26.4 percent of the respondents had an intention to use (“would like to use” + “would consider using”) “services that let you stay at a private individual’s empty room, apartment, or house at a travel destination.” In both cases, more respondents replied that they have no intention to use the services (“would not like to use” + “would prefer not to use”) (Figure 4-2-1-1). These results indicate that many Japanese consumers are cautious about using these services at the present time.

We asked respondents that had replied they have no intention to use the services (respondents who answered “would prefer not to use” or “would not like to use”) for their reasons. The most common answer, given by about 60 percent of the respondents, was “concern about support in the case of an accident or other problem.” This finding shows that improving trustworthiness is an issue for these services, as many people feel uneasy about the handling of accidents or other forms of trouble because the services are unfamiliar to them. Other reasons quoted by people—“services cannot be ranked sufficiently by user comments alone” and “services are more trustworthy when provided by a company that can be held responsible”—were not so common, at about 10 percent and 20 percent respectively (Figure 4-2-1-2). This suggests that on the whole people do accept the fundamental mechanism of sharing-economy-style services: i.e., the assurance of C2C service quality by means of user comments and rankings.

## Figure 4-2-1-1 Intention to use overseas sharing-economy-style services

(Source) "Study Report on People's Attitudes toward New ICT Services and Technologies that Resolve Social Issues," MIC (2015)