Shared Economy and Globalization

It seems the protectionism is in forming recently, which has been viewed as an action against globalization and world unity. However, the development may not stop the connections in a more organic manner, which is enabled by virtual space connections. Digital revolution and shared economy is the trend in current stage of economy, and the world is connected with or without human bureaucracy and mechanical organizations. The world is growing to be a unity in its own way with reduced middle layers between product producers and product consumers.

Shared economy and world unity are not necessarily measured by man-made structure and organizations; rather it can be accomplished by underneath organic growth and connections. The looser the human imposed control the easier for the organic growth of the underneath connections; although we should balance governance with organic growth to maintain the order in this world.

The digital economy enabled connections are evolving to connect the end points and eliminate the middle layers for efficiency and cost effectiveness (e.g. world is becoming flat), which are enabled by Internet connections, service oriented infrastructures (cloud computing is an enabler), Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and many other technology advancements. This shared economy built on top of digital connections is irreversible, and is parallel to man-made connections via politics and bureaucratic organizations, though we need both.

Also, capital is live blood for economy that flows through the vessels via digital connections, it likes water in nature, will flow to places where costs are low and have better potential for investment gains. Internet provides the pipes that enable the flow and make the flow easier across the world.

The competition landscape is moving to suit more constructive and “win-win” approaches, due to the complex inter-connections we are experiencing that beyond human recognition. The biggest enemy for us will be the limitation in understanding the complexities brought by the digital connections in this unified world, which is far beyond the challenges from business competitors.