Opinion | Why Hong Kong has to accommodate Airbnb and Uber – or slam the door on innovation economy

Peter Kammerer says while Uber and Airbnb are no different from other for-profit businesses, outright rejection of widely accepted ideas such as these risks Hong Kong shutting out innovation altogether

Reading Time:3 minutes

Taxi drivers smash a taxi to call on the government to ban car-rental services, outside Wan Chai Tower on July 24, 2015. For all the government’s free-market claims, it is often held hostage by vested interests. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 12:41pm, 17 Jul 2017Updated: 3:26pm, 18 Jul 2017

Uber, Airbnb and all those bike app companies that have sprung up of late have little, if anything, to do with the “sharing economy”. Nor are they marvels of technology to be fawned over. They are businesses for making profit, pure and simple, and should be treated by governments as such.

Hong Kong’s innovation and technology minister, Nicholas Yang Wei-hsiung, came in for flak after making that point to lawmakers last month. He was widely viewed as being anti-technology for hitting out at app-driven private car-hire services and online flat rentals. They could, he contended, only be allowed to operate if they first met government requirements and regulations. Without such approval, they were illegal.

No one can argue with such sentiments; there are too many greedy companies and weirdos out there, and employees and customers need proper protections. Registering and licensing is the only way to do that. Hiding behind the banner of the “sharing economy” cannot be allowed, particularly if there’s no sharing going on. I can’t see the sharing element in using an app to get an Uber car, paying to go from place to place on a bike, or going onto the Airbnb website to rent a room in someone’s flat.

A police inspector briefs the media about the 22 Uber drivers arrested after raids following a three-week undercover operation, at Sham Shui Po police station on May 23. About a dozen vehicles were impounded. Photo: Edward Wong

Uber, Airbnb show Hong Kong’s inability to adapt to changing times and technology

The sharing economy only works at the grass-roots level. The online auction site eBay was like that when it started in 1995, being a platform for people to offload what they no longer needed. It was truly democratic in nature, allowing people to buy as well as sell. But eBay is now more an online store than an auction site; auctions account for a fraction of the listings.

Hong Kong is often held hostage by vested interests

Uber and Airbnb have been the flag-bearers of the sharing economy, and being headquartered in liberal San Francisco helps with the legitimacy of such a claim. But Uber has never been about sharing, even though it has promoted itself as a ride-sharing platform; it is just a tech-savvy private taxi service. Airbnb better fit the concept when it was founded, being about making a little extra cash from renting everything from a room to a sofa, and getting a more authentic experience from travel.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Uber, Airbnb show Hong Kong’s inability to adapt to changing times and technology

Uber, Airbnb show Hong Kong’s inability to adapt to changing times and technology