Bulgaria takes the 7th place in willingness to participate in sharing communities – free of charge or in exchange for money, is stated in a global report of Nielsen.
Modern services such as Uber and “Pass on the ticket” are popular in the country
Bulgarians are very open to different forms of sharing economy – they are willing to offer and use services such as Uber, to share books, clothes and other possessions through internet platforms and more often share rooms, apartments and houses as an alternative of hotels.
Bulgaria takes the 7th place in willingness to participate in sharing communities – free of charge or in exchange for money, is stated in a global report of Nielsen, quoted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The top countries, likely to share from others are China, Indonesia, Slovenia, Philippines, Thailand and Mexico.
In the report is stated that in Bulgaria is very popular to pass your traveling ticket to an entering person on public transport. According to PWC transportation is one of the most developed sharing economy sectors. As an example they point out the collaborative Bulgarian-Belgian platform CarAmigo. From July to December 2016 in Bulgaria were registered over 450 cars and more than 1300 users, willing to use peer-to-peer transportation.
Peer-to-peer housing is also developing in Bulgaria. Home sharing platforms (for free on Couchsurfing.com or charged on Airbnb.com) overcame the classic forms of housing, such as hotels. As far back as two years ago AirBnb offered more beds than all hotels in Sofia and at the time over 300 users have signed up for the platform. The numbers for Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna are similar and in the summer the offers for the Black Sea coast are significantly rising.
The report states that sharing used books and text books are a well-known form of sharing economy in Bulgaria. Very popular nowadays are the apps, web pages and social media groups for selling and purchasing of clothes and accessories.
A newer trend are the peer-to-peer workspaces and offices – the owner or tenant offers others to share the working space. Even more often empty industrial buildings are provided for concerts, theatrical productions and exhibitions.
By 2025 the share of sharing economy will be up to 50% of the world’s GDP, says PWC.
