The Difficulties and The Limitation of Sharing Economy ─A Case Study of Airbnb

受到科技進步、消費者心態轉變、經濟因素三大條件驅動，共享經濟逐漸發展成具規模的集體社會趨勢，更被美國《時代週刊》列為「將會改變世界的十大主意」之一。本研究參考學者研究，將共享經濟定義為：「基於使多數人得以重複使用之目的，將閒置生產力透過中介平台，以群體合作進行有效率的點對點分享，並創造利益之商業模式」。 然而，隨著共享經濟企業的規模與版圖逐漸擴展，產業內既有的商業模式面臨破壞式創新所帶來的嚴峻挑戰和威脅，導致既得利益者企圖透過尋租行為要求政府禁止或限制共享經濟企業的營運，造成共享經濟發展受到限制。其中，尋租者多從「私人財產利用界線」及「平台與使用者間關係」來爭執共享經濟企業的合法性，且根據美國Uber案及Smart Apartment案判決分析，可再細部歸納得出「外部成本」、「契約性質」係爭議主因。 Airbnb係目前規模最大的私人住宅出租平台，為共享經濟十分成功的個案，使用者可將家中閒置空間刊登於平台上，短租給各地旅客。然而，多數城市均以法律規定業者需取得許可始能提供短期住宿服務，Airbnb使用者未獲得許可即於平台上提供住宅短租的行為，即產生適用法規上的合法性爭議。 本研究從「外部成本」及「契約性質」兩大角度切入，以紐約州檢察總長之Airbnb市場研究報告、Airbnb美國訴訟案以及我國日租套房判決，針對Airbnb「短租私人住宅」與「使用者利用平台」兩大行為做出我國法規適用之合法性討論，並企圖以立法管制、寇斯定理及社會規範，提出政府面對Airbnb於臺灣營運時可行之管理方式。 Driven by the technological, changes, consumers’ purchase behaviors and the economy concern issues, sharing economy becomes a sizable social trend. Furthermore, Times magazine even ranks sharing economy as one of the ideas that would change the world. This research difines sharing economy as “a accessibility based business model for peer-to-peer markets, aimd to share underutilized asset or idling capacity effciently by crowd collaboration through a intermediary platform”. However, as the growth of sharing economy, enterprises are threatened by disruptive innovations and new business models., Thus, stakeholders’ rent-seeking behaviors within the industry would bring the difficulties and limitations to sharing economies. Those rent-seekers argue the issues of “the boundery of private property use” and “the relationship between platform and users” which make sharing economy invalid, and the lawsuits on Uber and Smart Apartment also show that “external costs” and “the nature of contract” are the main reasons resulting to rent seeking. Airbnb is the biggest house-renting platform also one of the most successful sharing economy enterprises. Users could plae their own vacant spaces to rent out to other users on this platform to earn extra profits. While most cities in the world require house-renting or hotel business to obtain permission before providing short-term accommodation services, Airbnb’s users provide short-term accommodation via its platform do not require the permission which arise the disputes of the legality and vaility when applying to local regulation. This theis is base on the perspectives of “external costs” and “the nature of contract”, market research report undertaken by the New York State Attorney General, American lawsuits related to Airbnb and cases of daily-based house-rental business in Taiwan to analyze the issues of short-term rental for private house, the useage of sharing economy platform, and the legality and validity of Airbnb when its business model applying to Taiwanese regulation. Based on the analysis, this theis proposes a solution about how Taiwanese government manages Airbnb’s based on legislative control, Coase Theorem and social norms