Have you booked a holiday using Airbnb or Tujia.com? Have you used an app to get around town? Or have you listened to Spotify or KuGou rather than purchase music?

If you have done any of these things, you have participated in what is frequently termed the "sharing economy", a collection of sectors that rely on access over ownership and digital platforms to connect demand with spare capacity.

This concept prioritizes providing consumers with access to a particular asset over ownership of that asset.