Originally posted by (name missing) on September 24, 2017
Though not exactly a mobile resource, examining the efforts made by Seoul as they use mobile technologies to solve urban issues is an important resource to learn from and reflect on.
Dubbed as the “world’s most wired city”, Seoul has a world-class IT and civic infrastructure, the highest fiber optic broadband penetration, free WiFi service in all outdoor spaces, highest smartphone penetration rate in the world,, and subway systems wired for high speed Internet (Johnson, 2014).
Leveraging the opportunity that this digitally-charged city offers, the Seoul Metropolitan Government launched the Sharing City project (Editor’s note: this link is no longer functional, so I edited it) to create an official sharing ecosystem.
The aim is to address deeply-rooted urban issues such as unemployment, population density, housing costs, air pollution, high suicide rates, high household debt and high waste production.
The mission is to regenerate the city by creating a sense of community and belonging, inspiring individual and community-shared accountability, instilling a spirit of entrepreneurship, and promoting environmental sustainability.
Part of the solution is a combination of top-down and bottom-up Sharing Economy innovations funded and facilitated by the city government. In 2013, Seoul invested 268 KRW in 42 sharing business startups. This includes mobile platforms for homesharing (Kozaza and BnBHero), children’s clothing exchanges (Kiple), car sharing (SoCar), photo sharing, meal sharing (Zipbob), knowledge sharing (Wisdome), parking space sharing, and goods sharing.
Today, still in its early stages, the Sharing City project have faced challenges where global tech companies such as Uber and Airbnb have tried to take market share and startups have faced issues of scaling up due to regulations misaligned with the sharing economy vision.
However, the vision of bringing back a sense of community is still in sight and nuggets of success can be found. For example, SoCar, the car sharing platform, has attracted 2.5 million users since its launch, and sharing economy startups have raised a collective 94 billion KRW (Ramirez, 2017).
Lead photo source: https://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world. https://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world
References
Ramirez, E. (2017). In Seoul, a new sharing economy takes hold—one that leaves Uber and Airbnb in the cold. Retrieved from: https://qz.com/906280/in-seoul-a-new-sharing-economy-takes-hold-one-that-leaves-uber-and-airbnb-in-the-cold/
Guerrini, F. (2014). How Seoul Became One Of The World’s Sharing Capitals. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2014/05/25/how-seoul-became-one-of-the-worlds-sharing-capitals/#6d95c509601c
Johnson, C. (2013). Is Seoul the next Great Sharing City? United Nations University. Retrieved from: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/is-seoul-the-next-great-sharing-city
Johnson, C. (2014). Sharing City Seoul: a Model for the World. Retrieved from: https://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-worldAverage: 4.3/5 Stars
Sharing City Seoul is an intriguing project that attained global recognition as it connected millions of people through mobile apps to create a sharing economy which allowed citizens to make money renting out their commodities. Though widely lauded, there is some criticism that the reality did not match up to the hype (Source: https://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1968400202?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14656), but the project is an excellent example of mobile culture and connecting people through mobile tech in new, innovative ways.