Deep-dive on trust on online p2p platforms

• Author: Pierre Hausemer - Julia Rzepecka - Marius Dragulin - Simone Vitiello - Lison Rabuel - Madalina Nunu - Adriana Rodriguez Diaz - Emma Psaila - Sara Fiorentini - Sara Gysen - Tim Meeusen - Simon Quaschning - Allison Dunne - Vadim Grinevich - Franz Huber - Linda Baines
• Pages: 29-34

Exploratory study of consumer issues in online peer-to-peer platform markets –

Task 3 Report

4. Deep-dive on trust on online P2P platforms

This chapter digs into how users evaluate trustworthiness of peers and platforms in

the online sharing economy.

As we discussed before, current users of P2P platforms experience problems and

negatives (see chapter 3.2.2) and they acknowledge trust issues and risk issues, more

than in the traditional economy (see chapter 3.1 and 3.4) but respondents see these

as a part of the game. It’s unregulated and there are no intermediaries, and this

brings along extra risk, but you take it as inherent to the nature of this market. (as

explained in chapter 3.4).

“You have to be a bit careful.” (SL)

“There are differences if you buy it from a physical person [as opposed to buying from

a company]… There is no guarantee.” (SL)

“Supply and demand, without intermediaries.”(FR)

Still, they developed mechanism to reduce the risk involved as much as possible and

to evaluate upfront the trustworthiness of the involved players.

In general, in the evaluation of trust in the online sharing economy ranking and

reviewing systems play a very important role. Most respondents agree that these

are a reliable source of information.

“I check out the reviews. When there are none, I won’t hire.” (NL)

“I always check opinions. If there is plenty of them that say that a shop or a person is

OK, I know that it is safe to buy here or from that person. Because if someone has

60% of negative comments, that means that there is something wrong here.” (PL)

“Because of the comments you have trust in the quality level and are checking quality

upfront. Someone who has already bought it, can describe how happy they are with

the product. Not just with the seller, but also with the product itself.” (SL)

“Nowadays opinions, references matter a lot. People are looking at it. It is better to

pay 20zl more from someone who has many positive opinions. It is safer. It is

important to share these opinions.” (PL)

“We booked an apartment for six persons and a review said it was more so a four

person apartment. But we chose not to l isten and it turned out to be true, so some of

us didn’t sleep well.” (DK)

The review and ranking system also gives them a feeling of control over the

situation.

“I got really good feedback and I don’t want to let it drop because it’s largely the

reason why I can charge so much.” (UK)

“We are with our comments determining the success of their activities.” (IT)

“My husband gave a bad grade because the item was not delivered on time. He

received an email from the provider, begging him to change the grade, promising to

send another item in return.” (SL)