ENTERING THE TRUST AGE
BlaBlaCar works hard to understand what strengthens the sense of trust between online peers. Together with NYU Stern Professor and sharing economy specialist, Arun Sundararajan, BlaBlaCar looked at the mechanics of online trust, and the resulting level of trust created, with implications for the entire sharing economy. A Europe-wide survey of BlaBlaCar members generated responses from 18,289 members across 11 countries. Here is what BlaBlaCar members had to say:
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88% of respondents say that they highly trust other BlaBlaCar members with full profiles. This is close to the 92% who highly trust their friends, and significantly higher than the 58% who highly trust their colleagues.
When provided with the right set of digital trust tools, users of online platforms are able to recreate a sense of trust almost comparable to the level of trust in friends. This holds true across all countries surveyed, revealing the universality of the phenomenon.
When respondents were asked about other services in the collaborative economy, their responses revealed that familiarity with trust tools on one platform has a positive spillovers effect for other sharing platforms, as members become more likely to take up other sharing economy activities.
Building a trusted environment is a continuous process. Through constant iterations, BlaBlaCar has identified tools and product features, which facilitate peer-to-peer interactions, allowing the carpooling platform to become one of the largest sharing communities worldwide. Based on this experience, BlaBlaCar has developed a trust framework for the collaborative economy. This is summarised by the acronym D.R.E.A.M.S.:
Declared – Declared identity including name, photo and bio.
Rated – Peer-to-peer ratings based on members’ prior rideshares.
Engaged – Financial commitment to the journey via pre-payment service.
Moderated – Content exchanged by members moderated and verified by the platform.
Social – Existing online social identity (Facebook or LinkedIn) connected with profiles.
Find out more by downloading the report here, or watching Arun Sundararajan:
