Shared Economy Still Booms: Tissue, Power Banks, What’s Next?

Sayings：

Back when I first weighed in on the sharing economy, I published an article that examined the concept: How Should We View the "Sharing Economy"?

Lately, quite a few people have been making money from their funds. For instance, my former boss posted in the group chat that he had pocketed several thousand yuan over the past few days, which naturally led to a discussion about emerging sharing-economy services like shared tissue dispensers. Are these sharing-economy ventures actually viable? Here I go again, letting my thoughts wander.

Some years ago, if someone had told me that investors were putting money into a shared power-bank business, I would have immediately thought the investor had lost his mind. (It just seemed like a project with no real demand, no market, no way to make money—a obvious scheme to fleece investors, hahaha.)

After spending some time in the advertising industry, I finally understood that it's not that simple. Whether or not a project can profit directly from its core transaction is one question; from a traffic perspective, at least, it can definitely work.

As I've said before, the basic logic of commerce always boils down to monetizing traffic, often through advertising. If these sharing-economy models follow that path, they are certainly viable. The only remaining question is whether the underlying demand is frequent enough and essential enough.

To put it simply, today someone in the group asked about the shared-tissue project: scan a code and you can grab a free pack of tissues from the machine. Now, picture this scenario: place these devices in public restrooms. Some people will inevitably forget their tissues and have an urgent need. Once you build up visibility, it can easily evolve into a stable traffic hub.

Getting users to follow and connect on WeChat opens the door to ads—WeChat follower-growth campaigns, H5 lottery-based interactive ads, and other formats that all work.

Build your own traffic channels, then sell that traffic. This is a business model that has already been proven.

Years ago, in Europe, there was an entrepreneur who built free public restrooms all across the country. He went on to earn tens of millions of dollars annually from advertising revenue alone.

Let's take Hive box lockers as another example. They're pretty good at advertising now.

First, they use offline locker locations as a way to capture traffic. Why? Because most people can't pick up deliveries during work hours. Dropping a package at a nearby shop costs a few yuan in storage fees, while Hive box lockers charge only a few cents—and you can pick it up anytime, provided you scan the QR code and follow their public account.

Once traffic flows into that private channel, they can sell ads on their public account. With over 60 million followers (nearly 40 million just two months ago), each ad placement runs around 600,000 yuan. So how much revenue are they pulling in annually? Conservative estimate: tens of millions of yuan. And that doesn't even count the additional businesses they've spun off around such massive traffic.

So whether the sharing economy is a genuine trend or a passing fad, the underlying business models are sound, and as long as they work, people will keep playing—and earning. These models all stem from the basic principle of traffic monetization, with the project's own revenue points layered on top.

Create demand scenarios, align user needs with those scenarios, build traffic channels to satisfy those needs, and then aggregate and monetize the traffic.

As for experimenting with other business models? Of course. But that's where perspectives diverge, and where your own judgment comes in.

What I've described is only one viable approach; there are many others I haven't mentioned.

So, the world is big. Step out and see it for yourself—it's fascinating. Things that seem unviable on the surface may, in fact, be hiding significant profit potential.

Since we're on the topic, let me share one more example: film-streaming sites. Many run pirated movie sites that offer VIP-level playback. Put another way, they're pooling movie resources. It's straightforward traffic monetization: viewers watch movies, click on ads, and the site owner earns money.

It's highly profitable. Otherwise, why does every time one site gets shut down, several backup sites immediately pop up? Hahaha. And with WeChat public accounts available to gather traffic into a stable pool, these operators are having a field day.

I want to show you the beauty of the rest of my life.

Young friend, this world is full of wonders. Go out and explore; don't limit yourself.

To sum up: find the core logic of a business, apply a model to it, and if it works, there's room to play. Take traffic monetization, for example.

If you put it another way, isn't Toutiao essentially "sharing content entrepreneurship"? A form of collaborative, traffic-based monetization?

Good night.

I now have 92 followers. Just to reiterate, this account is my personal diary—I write whatever comes to mind:Hi, Let Me Introduce Myself—This Is My Personal Account

This article was originally published on my personal account:The Sharing Economy Is Still Booming—Shared Tissues, Power Banks, and Other Ventures. Do They Have a Future?