You can have your house chores or office work completed for you using TaskRabbit, or get designer clothes from Poshmark, or get a car to use for a while using Getaround. If you are vacationing and want to ride a bike, snowboard, or surf, then you want to use Spinlister. Rover.com connects you to dog sitters so that you don’t have to keep your pets in a kennel. Let’s dive deep into these sharing economy apps.
TaskRabbit
Hire people with TaskRabbit to do handyman jobs, run deliveries, or help with your office needs. This app is great for saving time and energy. TaskRabbit screens Taskers thoroughly before entering them into the system. You can use TaskRabbit in all states across the US. With the TaskRabbit Elite, you gain exclusive access to the service’s highest-rated taskers. Taskers in this category have a proven track record of excellent performance, earning positive ratings of 98 percent or higher. TaskRabbit has a community service it calls TaskRabbit for Good. This community service program aims to “support job creation and prevent and end homelessness, but will also support the non-profit initiatives of Taskers.” This app saves you time and energy. You can get the app from Google Play and the App Store.
Getaround
Getaround is a peer-to-peer car-sharing company that lets you borrow other people’s cars for as little as $5 per hour. This service is mainly available to people living in certain cities across the US: Portland, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston, New Jersey, Berkeley, Oakland, and Chicago. If you don’t live in any of these cities, then Turo is another option to explore. You can also make money with Getaround by leaving your car with them when you are out of town. They will rent out, clean, and care for the car while you’re away. Berkshire Hathaway provides a $1 million insurance cover for cars in Getaround’s care. This app saves you money (and might even make you money). Getaround says you might make up to $10,000 from renting out your car yearly. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
Spinlister
Spinlister lets you rent a bike, snowboard or surfboard from anywhere around the world. Although the app offers snowboard and surfboard rentals globally, bike rentals are available to only a few countries. You can rent bikes across North America, most countries in Western Europe and Scandinavia, Croatia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Singapore, and Taiwan. This app saves you money, time and effort (and might even make you money). You can download it on the App Store and Google Play.
Poshmark
Poshmark prides itself as the United States’ biggest social marketplace for fashion, where their app users can buy, sell and share their styles on Poshmark. If you ever wish you had a “style-mate” to shop his or her closet, this app helps. If you have fashion items hanging in your closet and you’d rather have them on sale, this app helps once again. The Poshmark app saves you money and effort as it takes about 60 seconds to start selling fashion items from your closet. The service covers women’s, men’s, and kids’ clothing, shoes, accessories, and makeup. They provide detailed Community Guidelines. You can download their iOS and Android apps directly or let them send you their download link by SMS.
Rover.com (and DogVacay)
Rover.com acquired DogVacay in early 2017. Both Rover.com and DogVacay are pet – especially dog – sitting and care-giving apps. TechCrunch called DogVacay “The Airbnb for Pets.” Using your Rover.com App you can get someone to watch your dog for the short term or for weeks at a go if you are out of town. Your dog gets care and isn’t locked up in a kennel, s/he walks around freely, and this can be in your home or the sitter’s home. Rover.com is famous for being America’s largest network of dog walkers and pet sitters, they have sitters who cater to dogs that need extra attention, and you can book for last-minute sitters. Overall, the Rover.com app saves you time and energy. The service’s iOS and Android apps are available for download on their website.
Sharing Economy Apps Wrap-up
Sharing economy apps are expected to grow with the sharing economy. The sharing economy was valued at $14 billion in 2014 and is projected to reach $335 billion by 2025. That’s nearly 2400 percent growth in about ten years. For the foreseeable future, we should expect this industry to keep growing. We’d be interested in hearing from you in the comments section below.
