An unequal share

Although Tianjin has nearly 300 listed homes on Airbnb, it's a fraction of the number listed in other cities such as the 24,000 listed in London. It is not surprising, there isn't the same custom of inviting neighbours and friends round for a meal or a drink in China, as there is in the west. Sharing a house or a room to a complete stranger is going to be more of a cultural shift. These cultural differences are reflected in popularity and also in provision. An example is the concerns about the safety of shared bikes. It's a hot topic in the west following a number of accidents. In one case, when a user was hit by a truck it was followed by a protest of cyclists, campaigning for better bicycle friendly roads. Santander bikes in London have recently made a marketing campaign about their ‘laser’ lights which come on automatically while riding. In comparison, none of the bike sharing providers in China are fitted with lights. Safety doesn’t seem to be of similar concern.

On the other hand, the percentage of smart-phone users by China's population is far higher than most western countries. It has 1.3 billion mobile phone users. Many comfortably use them to order dinner, hail a cab and pay their electricity bills, even older people in small shops routinely pay for groceries with their phone. Jeffrey Towson, a professor of investment at Peking University said "The Chinese mobile ecosystem may be the most innovative on the planet,"

This is good news for urbanites, but many of the sharing services such as Uber are not available outside of the cities. Mobike's launch in Tianjin covers a wide area, but is really aimed at "completing the last mile" from the train or bus station. There are limits on the area of use and penalties if you travel outside. The same is true of take away deliveries which aren't often available in villages. In some areas mobile phone coverage is also poor and internet speeds slow. It seems as the density of population decreases so does the opportunities to share in the sharing economy.