Those attending this year's Bo'ao Forum for Asia have been discussing the development of peer-to-peer online service platforms, which are said to be forming the foundation of a so-called "sharing economy" in China.

The 'sharing economy, or collaborative consumption, allows individuals, corporations, non-profits and governments the ability to use resources by forms of redistribution and sharing in both goods and services.

Observers in the 'sharing economy' system suggest that when information about goods is put out to the rest of the world, typically via an online marketplace, the value of those goods can increase.

Chinese taxi-hailing app Didi Kuaidi is one of those companies which has tried to capitalize on this business concept.

Didi COO Li Jianhua says its their belief a 'sharing economy' has become a necessity in big cities in China.

"Right now, over 5 million vehicles are on the roads in Beijing. If the number of cars increases by another 10 million, traffic throughout the capital will be paralyzed. As such, a 'sharing economy' has become a necessity, rather than just an option."

Another area which is benefiting from the 'shared economy' model in China is the "home-cooking," or "Huijia Chifan" app.

It's a relatively new app which allows people to access home-cooked meals by connecting them with kitchens in their neighborhood.

Tang Wanli, founder of Huijia Chifan, came up with the idea 2-years ago.

"On the one hand, there are a large number of retired people in China due to the growth of the aging population. In Beijing alone, data show some 10 million families have either elderly people or housewives staying at home. At the same time, more and more young people are unwilling to cook, or they simply do not have the time."

Today, some 50 million "sharing business" platforms are serving over 500 million users in China, generating revenues of close to 2 trillion yuan a year.

However, regulatory uncertainty remains one of the unsettled issues in the emerging business model.

Certain consumers still remain leery about the safety of shared products or services, even though many platforms have a real-name based registration system.

Varsha Rao, head of global operations for US-based home-stay site Airbnb, says they work actively with local governments to meet their different demands.

"We want to work with each city personally in a way that is relevant to address the issue that city may be facing. You know a market like here in Bo'ao which is a vacation market has different types of concerns than let's say San Francisco or New York, which are highly-densed urban market. The second is we really want to be transparent about our data, so the government knows what is happening in terms of sharing economy in their city."

Zhou Hang, CEO and founder of car-hailing company Yidao Yongche, says it goes beyond the government when it comes to safety concerns.

"I want to stress that many jobs within the sharing economy should not be overseen by the government. We, the sharing service platforms, are better suited to deal with our own problems and solve them by ourselves."

While debate is still ongoing on what role the government should play in the sharing economy, companies involved have reached at least one agreement: more trust is now needed between users and sharing service providers.

(CRIENGLISH.com March 25, 2016)