Hygonomics is changing the labor market. Part 1: BlaBlaCar Success Story

Original author: Tim Adams
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According to experts, in modern times of gigonomy, which involves the sharing of things, we will try our hand at a variety of different works, because modern technologies give us enough free time from 9 to 17. But these changes also carry anxiety, a sense of insecurity and low salaries.

In Christmas 2003, a young French IT specialist named Frédéric Mazzella tried to get from Paris to his parents ’house in southeastern France. He left the purchase of tickets at the last minute, and all the trains of the National Company of French Railways (SNCF) were already filled. He didn’t have a car. There was no bus that would go along the desired route with a length of 420 km. Mazzella thought that in any case there should be people who are traveling in the same direction, and in their cars there will be free space for a fellow traveler. Right? But how to contact them? There was a traditional method: Mazzella could go to the side of the road and stand with a cardboard sign, but it seemed very outdated. In addition, the forecast promised snowfall. Does the Internet really offer such services? Mazzella combed the net but didn’t find anything. In the end, his sister had to travel 150 km to take him home for the holidays, but Mazzella looked at the cars moving in the same direction with three empty seats all the way. And each of these places was for him a gap in the market.

In those days when we are moving away from traditional business and working full time, multiple microbusinesses are becoming an attractive idea.

However, then Mazzell faced a problem typical for those years - in 2003 there was already the Internet, but social media was poorly developed. There was no Facebook. There were no smartphones. People told him that his idea would never work. Who wants to drive 420 km with a stranger whom he met through the Internet, no matter how cheap it is? However, Mazzella believed in this idea. And his idea, now called BlaBlaCar, was waiting for the development of social media, Facebook and smartphones. In addition to the development of technology, Mazzella and two other partners, whom he managed to convince with him to create a car sharing platform, were helped by a couple of external factors. The first is the financial crisis; thanks to him, the young generation of people who were just looking for their first job could understand not only how unstable capitalism was, but also that it was not built taking into account their interests. It was necessary to find new streams of income. The second factor is the 2010 ash cloud from Iceland, which helped BlaBlaCar get publicity as a great solution for people who are stuck away from home. Five years later, Mazzella's idea became a multi-million dollar success story.

BlaBlaCar does not have a well-developed infrastructure; the company employs less than 300 employees worldwide. Each month, the company's Internet platform helps to find free places for 2 million trips. SNCF CEO recently recognized BlaBlaCar as a major competitor. And his fears are clear. SNCF has kilometers of railroad tracks and a huge number of fixed trains that need to be maintained and repaired, and in addition, the company has thousands of employees who need to be paid. And the infrastructure and, to a large extent, BlaBlaCar organization is provided by 10 million active participants in the service - for free. In the most popular countries, these members are happy to pay BlaBlaCar 10% commission for using the platform.

BlaBlaCar is an ideal example of the opportunities that gigonomy gives us, finding free places for work in the inefficiency of capitalism and using them thanks to sharing platforms. Thanks to this, there is an application for free seats in the car, just as Airbnb makes money on free rooms or massive open online courses provide lectures. Participants do not earn on the proposed places - they cover travel expenses thanks to fellow travelers.

Nicolas Brusson was one of Mazzella's partners at BlaBlaCar. When we recently talked with him about the company, he said that BlaBlaCar was not really a business providing cheap transportation services; rather, it was a trust business. “There was always talk about payment,” he said. “The main question was: how to build trust?” Technology and an understanding of feedback and ratings made this happen. “Magic really takes place within the community,” says Brusson. Maintaining a reputation for service and user safety is what keeps Brusson awake at night. However, filling out their profiles and carefully putting down a rating based on experience, "the participants themselves do most of our work for us." Moreover, the more subscribers,

“So far, our main concern has not been to win the competition,” says Brusson. - BlaBlaCar is too budget model for this. Our main task and difficulty was to educate as many people as possible in the service. We wondered: is this just a French phenomenon? And we have proved that no. Then we asked ourselves: is this just a European phenomenon? Not. We will soon appear in Brazil, India and not only. This platform works wherever people have cars. ”

Being a member of BlaBlaCar, or providing accommodation on Airbnb, or working as a taxi driver on Uber, or selling trinkets on Etsy, or teaching something on YouTube, you do not work full time. But now, these things are increasingly becoming part of the working resumes of a huge number of people. All of them use their previously unrealized skills and abilities, resorting to the help of modern technologies in order to gain access to the market. At a time when we are moving away from traditional business and working full time, multiple microbusinesses are becoming a tempting idea.

In 2013, as a result of one study, it was found that out of 702 professions, almost half are in the high-risk category of “potential automation”.

Indeed, the novelty of these models has convinced some commentators and representatives of legal structures that freelance due to digital platforms can be something of a panacea for an economy that is in decline and stagnation, and such employment may become the future. But the BlaBlaCar example proves that ideas with zero indirect costs can grow exponentially very quickly. And yet, if such types of employment and sharing services are indeed our future, then what will it look like? It definitely will not have employees with a fixed salary in companies with a hierarchical structure. There may be low wages and weak union rights. But such a future can also provide many opportunities, and yet, perhaps, this change will be simply necessary.

Uber is currently one of the pioneers of these changes, with its ambition to make everyone who has GPS a taxi driver (and eventually push out full-time drivers from the business). Uber consultant David Plouffe recently explained that the service was created for people who are experiencing financial difficulties - it allows them to earn an extra penny or those who are looking for work. Most drivers do not decide to make it their profession or to do it for a long time. This is very important: for most people, Uber is not even part-time work ... it's just a small part-time job for an hour or two a day that helps make ends meet. ”

The second part is here .

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