According to a recent survey for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Southwestern Ontario’s willingness to embrace the new high-tech “sharing economy” is much lower than the rest of the province.
A sharing economy includes companies like Uber, Airbnb, Autoshare, or Zipcar that share services to their communities.
Assistant Professor JP Vergne told The London Free Press the regional differences regarding sharing economies can be explained by demographic and population density.
“Younger people are more used to using smartphones, apps and alternate methods of payment. You also need a critical mass of people before services such as Uber make sense.”
Vergne also participated in a radio interview with CBC’s Ontario Morning on the sharing economy report, where he took the time to further discuss Uber’s decision to come to London and the appeal this service will hold for students.
Vergne's interview runs between 23:57 – 33:30 on CBC's podcast.
