Mapping the key stakeholders of the sharing economy in Hungary

"Winners" and “losers” of the Covid19 crisis in a specific segment of the labour market

Abstract

Following global trends, the sharing economy has started to play an increasingly important role in Hungary. In our qualitative research we examined various platforms within the sharing economy in Hungary to explore their organizational modes and their working mechanisms. The impact of the pandemic (COVID19) received special attention in our study. Since we hypothesized that this crisis affected the European and therefore Hungarian key actors of the sharing economy to a varying degree, we conducted another 12 follow-up interviews in 2020 in addition to the 15 expert interviews which took place in 2019. Our qualitative research showed that following the border closure and other restrictions in 2020, tourism (including travelling and accommodation) was affected tremendously. Regarding shared transport, the picture is more complicated: while the demand for bike sharing boomed, the popularity of car sharing and scooters decreased in the examined period. However, the role of social solidarity grew, which helped the activity of some assistance-based platforms grow and the food sharing organizations with home delivery services also gained profit during the lockdown period of the first wave of the COVID19 crisis. Communities based on co-working had to close partially or completely; some looked for new opportunities/strategies which could work in the digital world.