• The authors coin the term "Collaborative Consumption" and are the first to uncover and explain a zeitgeist idea sure to influence business, consumerism, and the way we live.

The recent changes in our economic landscape have only exposed and intensified a phenomenon: People are using Collaborative Consumption—organized sharing, bartering, lending trading, renting, gifting and swapping—to get the same fulfillment and benefits of ownership with reduced personal burden and cost ,as well as lower environmental impact.

In What’s Mine Is Yours, Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers identify how the convergence of social networks, a renewed belief in the importance of community, pressing environmental concerns, and cost consciousness have fueled the international growth of Collaborative Consumption. Botsman and Roo pinpoint three systems of this new consumer paradigm—Product Service Systems, Collaborative Lifestyles, and Redistribution Markets—and demonstrate how together, they are transforming notions of ownership, the consumer-producer relationship, and even the marketplace itself.

Building on the philosophy of sharing sites such as Wikipedia, Twitter, and Flickr, and established peer-to-peer marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist, Collaborative Consumption is in a rapid state of evolution and has already given rise to the likes of car sharing (Zipcar), bike sharing (Bixi, Vélib), swap trading (SwapStyle, Toyswap, Swaptreet), peer-to-peer rental (Zilok, RelayRides), and travel (couchsurfing, AirBnB), social lending (Zopa), bartering (Bartercard, Barterquest), co-working (HubCulture), neighborhood sharing (WeCommune, Sharesomesugar) and more. Although these examples range enormously in scale, maturity, and purpose, they share similar underlying principles– critical mass, the power of excess capacity, belief in the commons, and trust between strangers.

Traveling among the entrepreneurs and revolutionaries from all around the world, the authors explore how Collaborative Consumption has the potential to create more sustainable consumerism and increased alternatives to outdated modes of business.