Maltese take to Airbnb – not so much to Uber
Malta is in the fourth and fifth place respectively as regards the usage of the equivalent of Airbnb and Uber, according to statistics released yesterday by Eurostat.
Airbnb and Uber are two very recent developments which empha- sise the websites that are accessed by individuals on the internet.
In Airbnb, individuals arrange accommodation (room, apartment, house, holiday cottage, etc.) via websites or apps from another private individual for private purposes.
Arranging transport services online (known as Uber) is less common, being used by around 8% of individuals in the EU.
According to 2017 survey results, 17% of individuals in the EU arranged accommodation (room, apartment, house, holiday cottage, etc.) via websites or apps from another private individual for private purposes in the preceding 12 months.
Most of them used dedicated websites or apps, but other websites or apps (including those of social networks) have also had a share in facilitating those activities. These peer-to-peer services are part of the so called 'collaborative' or 'sharing economy'.
Arranging transport services online was less common, being used by around 8% of individuals in the EU. Again, this was mainly done via dedicated websites or apps.
While online accommodation booking from another private individual was more common among individuals aged 25-54 (22%), arranging transport services from another private person tends to be more popular among the younger generation (14% of those aged 1624).
This information, issued yesterday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, is part of the results of the survey conducted in 2017 on ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) usage in households and by individuals.
Approximately 1 in 3 individuals aged 16 to 74 arranged accommodation from another private indi- vidual via a website or with an app in the United Kingdom (34%), as did about 1 in 5 individuals in Luxembourg (22%), Ireland (21%), Malta and the Netherlands (20% each).
In contrast, the Czech Republic (1%) registered the lowest proportion among Member States for which data is available, followed by Cyprus (4%), Portugal and Romania (6% each) as well as Croatia (7%).
The highest share of individuals who arranged transport services from another private individual via any website or app was registered in the United Kingdom (27%), ahead of Estonia (20%) and Ireland (17%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest shares were recorded in Cyprus (1%), the Czech Republic, Austria, Portugal and Romania (2% each).
In nearly all Member States, the share of individuals using a website or app to arrange accommodation from other individuals was higher than for transport, the only exceptions being Estonia (15% for accommodation vs. 20% for transport) and the Czech Republic (1% for accommodation vs. 2% for transport).