CarShare Ventures B.V. (CSV) has developed SnappCar, a peer-to-peer (p2p) car sharing platform on which consumers can offer their car for rent for one or more days to other potential users. In others words: SnappCar is the equivalent of “AirBnB for cars”. CSV lowers risks and increases trust by arranging insurance, payments and screening potential users. Currently the average European car owner only makes use of his/her car one hour per day. The remaining hours, the car adds no value for the owner. In 2011, Europe’s car park amounted to nearly 250 million cars, equalling 5.75 billion hours of untapped potential per year. CSV perceives the tremendous amount of unused cars as a business opportunity with a societal impact. This is supported by economic, societal and environmental arguments, such as resource efficiency and interaction within communities.
In order to create more societal benefits, peer-to-peer car sharing will need to scale across more metropolitan areas in Europe. Currently, peer-to-peer car sharing platforms have developed scale and traction in the Netherlands, France and Denmark. However, it is unclear which other metropolitan areas in Europe are suited for establishing a peer-to-peer car sharing platform at scale. Preliminary market research has indicated untapped user potential and latent interest in car sharing in the following three European regions: North West Europe (Ireland and the United Kingdom), Central & Eastern Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary) and Southern Europe (Spain and Portugal). However more investigation is needed about the metropolitan areas in more detail before CSV can create a solid business strategy and tailor the current platform accordingly (removing cultural, technical, legal and economical market barriers) to access and engage the identified end-users of each region, in order to expand peer-to-peer car sharing beyond its current metropolitan areas.
According to the experience and viewpoint of CSV, convincing local car owners to share their cars, has proven a difficult and time-consuming exercise that requires a different and personalized approach per location. CSV learned this the hard way in Sweden and Denmark. In organizing events to get users on board, people in The Netherlands were more likely to show up for ‘a drink after work’, while people in Sweden only reacted to invitations for ‘Fika’, a traditional tea party with pastry. In short, picking the right location to start a new car sharing community has proven equally important as the picking the right marketing and growth strategy tailored to address local issues and preferences. The main objective of this market research are (1) to find out what the most opportune metropolitan areas in each of the three European zones are to start car sharing communities, (2) what the most opportune marketing and growth approaches are for each of these three locations, and (3) what are the requirements for commercialisation to overcome region specific market-barriers.
