Urban sharing in Berlin

Why did we select this snapshot?

Berlin has been described as a vibrant place to live in, not just for lifestyle, education and recreational activities, but for sharing economy initiatives as well. There are instances of organisations popping up, fading, growing, and sustaining themselves in different constellations of actors and business models.

Key findings 

The snapshot focuses on few but relevant sectors for sharing economy in Berlin:

• Design of sharing organisations, which differs according to the organisation's purpose (for-profit and non-profit). Some stakeholders interviewed indicated that not-for-profit and peer-to-peer organisations were more desirable in order to achieve the purported environmental and social potential of sharing.
• Accommodation sharing, for which Berlin has set up a regulation. According to this, a regulation is needed when a certain percentage of the accommodation is rented out. However, the regulation targets those commercial sharing companies that purchase vacant apartments to be placed on accommodation sharing platforms exclusively.
• Shared mobility. Among city representatives, there was less interest in understanding and supporting shared mobility. Principally, this is due to the still marginal impact of carsharing and bikesharing in terms of the total urban transportation system (in 2016): PUBLIC TRANSIT: 3.7 million rides per day, BIKE: 1.7 million rides per day, CARSHARING: 15,000 rides per day