As of June 22, Barbara Gray, an equity analyst and founder of Brady Capital Research, has seen her article, “Social Capital: The Secret behind Airbnb and Uber,” tweeted over 1.2 thousand times; garner 2.1 thousand Facebook “Likes;” and shared another 8.4 thousand times on LinkedIn.
Gray’s article breaks down the “Social Economy Pyramid” (scroll down) and analyzes three levels of companies that operate within it: Social Mission companies, Social Marketplace companies and Social Sharing companies.
Gray queries:
How is it that Airbnb and Uber have been able to build thriving ecosystems in just over five years with such significant scale and influence that they are now valued at $10 billion and $12 billion? And how have these companies become such a disruptive force that they are the target of deafening protests from the highly ensconced hotel and taxi industries in cities around the world?
The answer, she says, is social capital.
According to Gray, “the higher a company moves up the Social Economy Pyramid, the faster the rate of value acceleration as they are able to achieve a higher level of disruption and access multiple social value drivers.” And social sharing companies Uber and Airbnb, the quickest to reach the $10 billion valuation mark, sit atop the pyramid.
Why? Because Uber and Airbnb, Gray explains, are able to “access three social value drivers: Advocacy, Connection, and Collaboration.”
Continues Gray, “The revolutionary power of Airbnb and Uber comes from their ability to harness technology to create a social sharing platform that facilitates trust by creating transparency and dual accountability.”
Readers are strongly encouraged to check out Gray’s article (here’s another link to it). Though the most substantial chunk of Gray’s text focuses on Uber and Airbnb, she also devotes two sections of analysis to “Social Mission” and “Social Marketplace” companies.
“The secret to understanding this accelerating tectonic shift starts with Social Capital,” Gray concludes. So, feel free to start studying up.
Pyramid via LinkedIn/Bloomberg
