馬扎需要共享嗎 | Sharing economy stagnates after glut of wasteful items

Think all objects can benefit more people through sharing economy? Think twice.

Beijing saw "sharing folding stool" emerged on Sunday. The stools were placed at bus stations, with QR codes printed on the seats. Most stools disappeared by the end of the day and the practice was claimed by a small business. Scanning the QR code costs users nothing, not even a registration procedure.

Some people praised its convenience for providing a seat for bus waiters while others complained about their standing in the way of pedestrians. But most netizens on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo found it more amusing than functional.

"Should it bite or burn my bottom if I sit without scanning?" some laughed, "or should it not unfold unless I scan the code? I can't get the point!"

"It might burn your conscientiousness if you don't scan lol," replied a netizen.

In reply to the lost stools, the business said it calculated certain cost at this promotion stage and did that partly for public benefit.

But was it really benefiting the community?

According to Zhu Wei, deputy chief of communication research center at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), the folding stools do not fit a sharing economic item in strict terms. The practice was mostly a promotional campaign.

Zhu introduced that sharing economy includes two approaches: P2P (peer-to-peer) business such as ride-hailing, and broadly arranged sharing business from which derives certain products or service, like bike-sharing.

According to Zhu, small businesses are now abusing the concept, entitling commercial activities with "sharing" in order to promote the brands. However, Zhu confirmed that either for sharing or not, such commercial activities "must abide by commercial law restrained economy, and should hold certification."

"All content that a QR code redirected to should be reviewed by supervision authorities," added Zhu.

China's major cities have seen many sharing items appear in the market including sharing capsule hotel and luxury car, as well as portable objects and devices including umbrella and mobile power bank. Was its high cost, market need or pocket-friendly design that makes a sharing item tenable? Share your idea!