Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OWANDBO (Smart secure system to share resources between OWners AND BOrrowers in a peer-to-peer collaborative consumption market)
Période du rapport: 2016-10-01 au 2016-12-31
The European Sharing Economy Coalition (ESHEC) based on a market study from Nielsen group about consumer trends and habits worldwide declares that people owns far more stuff than they actually need and categorizes the typology of things that people will share. On average 22% of the population will share their belongings with other people, including their clothes, electronics and household items. Extremely popular peer to peer (p2p) platforms have already tapped into some of these assets (Airbnb for homes or Getaround for Cars). However, for the large majority of items with high-idling (“significant value not being used”) capacity currently there are no digital platforms like OWANDBO that allow peers to connect and share their underutilized goods and assets in a convenient, accessible, user friendly and profitable way.
The market potential for the sharing economy in Europe is €572 billion. In France alone while 19% of consumers reported use of this type in 2013, twice as many considered it in 2014, and 60% in 2015. However the big picture of the business opportunity for Buzinger with the OWANDBO project includes also environmental benefits and creation of governmental wealth through taxation on transactions, increased quality of goods exchanged, fostering local production and empowering individuals with new revenues. At Buzinger we have identified a great business opportunity within main cities in Europe and the US for a reliable Platform (OWANDBO) that assures users that assets will be available when needed and guarantees owners that their possessions will be treated appropriately and returned in the same conditions as before renting them. In five years time OWANDBO will be at the same level of other digital platforms, Airbnb, BlaBlaCar, within the Sharing Economy.
The market potential for the sharing economy in Europe is €572 billion. In France alone while 19% of consumers reported use of this type in 2013, twice as many considered it in 2014, and 60% in 2015. However the big picture of the business opportunity for Buzinger with the OWANDBO project includes also environmental benefits and creation of governmental wealth through taxation on transactions, increased quality of goods exchanged, fostering local production and empowering individuals with new revenues. At Buzinger we have identified a great business opportunity within main cities in Europe and the US for a reliable Platform (OWANDBO) that assures users that assets will be available when needed and guarantees owners that their possessions will be treated appropriately and returned in the same conditions as before renting them. In five years time OWANDBO will be at the same level of other digital platforms, Airbnb, BlaBlaCar, within the Sharing Economy.
Task 1. Market analysis: An evaluation of the market data, the social behaviours towards sharing economy initiatives, identification of the “early adopters” for OWANDBO and in depth consideration of the most relevant urban areas to initiate the international growth of OWANDBO was conducted. We identified 4 target cities within Europe, and two more in the US. Taking into consideration both attractiveness and addressability for a young and growing company like OWANDBO, we have established to begin the international growth with London, Paris and Berlin. Afterwards, we will capitalize on the experience in these cities to enter the main cities in US (New York and San Francisco), as an enabler of growth through brand recognition.
Task 2. Analysis of pilot experience: The feedback from the end users proved there is market interest to engage with the specific service OWANDBO provides within the sharing economy. Moreover, we found that users are excited to explore additional categories (other than clothing) with OWANDBO and pointed out “household & electronics” (thermomix and projectors amongst the most cited) and “travel & outdoors” (go pro cameras and extreme cold sleeping bags cited the most) as the most interesting categories for OWANDBO to enable next
Task 3. Specific requirements and system improvement: we compiled a new product development specification. We have aligned our objective to build a strong community of end users with our product design and value proposition. Based on the features to integrate into the product, we have a clear picture of the next technical steps that were incorporated to the work plan for the next 18 months
Task 4. Business plan: we developed the commercial strategy based in building growth within urban areas, targeting first specific neighbourhoods and growing radially from there. The business plan includes entering the market through the initially identified cities in Europe and US, establishing wholly owned subsidiaries in each city and recruiting personnel to manage the online and offline activities.
Task 5. Environmental footprint analysis: we evaluated the best way to quantify the impact that our end users will be making through the use of OWANDBO.
Task 6. Financial plan: Having analysed the market conditions and growth strategy, we have determined that OWANDBO will reach turnover figures of over €53M per year after 5 years in the market.
Task 7. IP regulation and strategy: This task is intended to exactly define and design the strategy that protects our product and knowledge from being used or copied by other players, as well as reviewing the potential constraints that we could face in form of regulatory issues. We will protect the image of the platform. At this stage the most relevant regulations are those related to e-commerce platforms and data protection regulations in each country we intend to operate
Task 8. Work plan for phase 2: This task of the feasibility study focused in preparing a complete plan to achieving. 1) the technical solution as per the requirements gathered through the execution; 2) the initial steps in our strategy to build growth in urban areas of Europe and USA.
Task 2. Analysis of pilot experience: The feedback from the end users proved there is market interest to engage with the specific service OWANDBO provides within the sharing economy. Moreover, we found that users are excited to explore additional categories (other than clothing) with OWANDBO and pointed out “household & electronics” (thermomix and projectors amongst the most cited) and “travel & outdoors” (go pro cameras and extreme cold sleeping bags cited the most) as the most interesting categories for OWANDBO to enable next
Task 3. Specific requirements and system improvement: we compiled a new product development specification. We have aligned our objective to build a strong community of end users with our product design and value proposition. Based on the features to integrate into the product, we have a clear picture of the next technical steps that were incorporated to the work plan for the next 18 months
Task 4. Business plan: we developed the commercial strategy based in building growth within urban areas, targeting first specific neighbourhoods and growing radially from there. The business plan includes entering the market through the initially identified cities in Europe and US, establishing wholly owned subsidiaries in each city and recruiting personnel to manage the online and offline activities.
Task 5. Environmental footprint analysis: we evaluated the best way to quantify the impact that our end users will be making through the use of OWANDBO.
Task 6. Financial plan: Having analysed the market conditions and growth strategy, we have determined that OWANDBO will reach turnover figures of over €53M per year after 5 years in the market.
Task 7. IP regulation and strategy: This task is intended to exactly define and design the strategy that protects our product and knowledge from being used or copied by other players, as well as reviewing the potential constraints that we could face in form of regulatory issues. We will protect the image of the platform. At this stage the most relevant regulations are those related to e-commerce platforms and data protection regulations in each country we intend to operate
Task 8. Work plan for phase 2: This task of the feasibility study focused in preparing a complete plan to achieving. 1) the technical solution as per the requirements gathered through the execution; 2) the initial steps in our strategy to build growth in urban areas of Europe and USA.
The initial expansion to main sharing economy cities in Europe and US will give us access to a significant potential market of 150 million people where, obtaining a penetration of only 0,12% of the population we will be able to achieve our objective of at least €53M revenues and 22 million transactions by 2023.
Regarding the environmental benefits, OWANDBO optimizes resource utilization and reduces the environmental footprint of individuals, products and cities. On average, OWANDBO can save 1 ton of waste and 165 tons of CO2 o every 1,000 transactions.
From a societal point of view, even though OWANDBO utilizes an online platform and a mobile app to facilitate its service, it creates value also by bringing people together ‘offline’. OWANDBO connects people and increases social interaction. An important value drawn from the interaction is that it conveys the sense that you can trust the people whom live nearby in your own community, and that the nature of the connection is not purely business exchange.
Lastly it provides an economic benefit for its uses by saving money, and for owners which easily monetize their belongings; and generation of a commercial activity and the correspondent taxes, contributing to employment and economy.
Regarding the environmental benefits, OWANDBO optimizes resource utilization and reduces the environmental footprint of individuals, products and cities. On average, OWANDBO can save 1 ton of waste and 165 tons of CO2 o every 1,000 transactions.
From a societal point of view, even though OWANDBO utilizes an online platform and a mobile app to facilitate its service, it creates value also by bringing people together ‘offline’. OWANDBO connects people and increases social interaction. An important value drawn from the interaction is that it conveys the sense that you can trust the people whom live nearby in your own community, and that the nature of the connection is not purely business exchange.
Lastly it provides an economic benefit for its uses by saving money, and for owners which easily monetize their belongings; and generation of a commercial activity and the correspondent taxes, contributing to employment and economy.