The Use of Collaborative Platforms in Romania and EU: A Comparative View

The term collaborative economy encompasses various activities that have emerged and developed rapidly in recent years through online collaboration platforms. In this article, we will review what the sharing economy means, what are the positive and negative consequences of such a phenomenon, what are the organizations that support the sharing economy. It can be said that the sharing economy is a reconversion of the traditional economy, which supports a society based on sustainability but, at the same time, must be prepared to respond to the challenges and criticisms brought. In the second part, we examine recent trends in the use of collaboration platforms in Romania and in the European Union (EU-28), focusing on general and more specific features regarding the profile of users, the type of services used and the main advantages and disadvantages of the collaborative economy in relation to traditional trade in goods and services. The data used in this analysis comes mainly from the recently published European Commission survey on the use and provision of services through collaborative platforms, as well as from the corresponding survey previously published in 2016 on the same topic.

JEL classification: O35