The genesis of the Sharing Economy in Albania: The Mobike platform in Tirana

Abstract The “sharing economy” has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. This paradigm offers transformative potential for the facilitation of the exchange of goods and services online. Although widely discussed phenomenon, sharing economy is a concept almost unknown in Albania, mainly due to the absence of Uber, BlaBlaCar, Airbnb and other platforms which have catalyzed its rise. However, it’s only a matter of time until we see their launch even in Albania. For instance, thanks to the rise of tourism industry, Booking.com operator has already extended its business model in the albanian real estate market. While a large share of the debate tends to focus on how sharing economy affects different sectors (transportation, accommodation, food, finance, etc.) and legislation (labor, competition, data protection etc.), sharing economy brings also various benefits both for consumers and businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the rise of sharing concept and its related regulatory challenges. In addition, an empirical methodology has been adopted. Firstly, I carried out a questionnaire on sharing economy awareness in Albania, aiming, on the one hand, to offer a chance of the current users’ knowledge of sharing economy and, on the other hand, hoping that my statistics data may play a significant role on the future market decisions of platforms’ providers who wish to invest and expand in Albania; further, this paper offers the opportunity to introduce Albanian’s academics into the (unexplored) world of platform economy and the chance for the government of Albanian to be prepared in case of future required regulation; and, secondly, I decided (mainly due to the absence of other sharing platforms in Albania) to have Mobike - a bike mobility sharing platform - as a case study for this paper. Finally, I drew up my conclusion on the impact that sharing economy will have in the Albanian economy