Sharing City Seoul

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= an official sharing ecosystem and, led by the Seoul Innovation Bureau within the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) [1]

Description

1. DaYe Jung:

"Since the declaration of Sharing City, Seoul has been one of the pioneers on city-driven sharing movement. The current mayor Won-Soon Park, whose background is from non-profit social sector, is very much eager to realize transparency and citizen engagement through sharing resources of the city.

Seoul recently launched a website called the Information Communication Agora(정보소통광장). On this website, citizens can view almost every administrative document and worksheet within Seoul city government (except ones containing personal information and confidential materials). What’s most remarkable is the the system behind the website. That is, when the civil servants create documents for confirmation, they send them to their seniors, the Information Communication Agora automatically brings this process to the public on the site. The General public can access to these documents and worksheets, even those still being processed.

Seoul city is expecting this will increase the transparency of the city dramatically, and become the foundation of active participation of citizens on civic betterment." (http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/11/22/seoul-shares-administrative-documents-with-public-even-in-process/)


2. By Cat Johnson:

"One of the great megacities of the world, Seoul, South Korea is positioning itself to be a model city for sharing. A new, city-funded project called Sharing City, Seoul aims to bring the sharing economy to all Seoul citizens by expanding sharing infrastructure, promoting existing sharing enterprises, incubating sharing economy startups, utilizing idle public resources, and providing more access to data and digital works.

Created in September of 2012 as part of the Seoul Innovation Bureau’s plan to solve social, economic and environmental problems in innovative ways, the Sharing City is a move to better the lives of Seoul citizens through sharing. It’s also a way to maximize the city’s resources and budget.

The goal of the Sharing City is to create jobs and increase incomes, address environmental issues, reduce unnecessary consumption and waste, and recover trust-based relationships between people. According to Kim Tae Kyoon, director of Seoul’s Social Innovation Division, the recovery of a sense of community is an important aspect of the project.

“The Sharing City not only creates new jobs, increases income and efficiently uses resources,” he says, “but it will reproduce communities that disappeared, due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, in a modern mode using information technologies and social networking services.”

With more than 10 million people living within 234 square miles, Seoul is in a good position to demonstrate the benefits of tech-enabled sharing. It’s one of the most populous cities in the world and one of the most connected. It has a highly-developed tech infrastructure, widespread public wifi, and 60% of South Koreans own a smartphone.

Seoul also faces serious challenges. Overpopulation and urbanization have led to housing, transportation and parking shortages, pollution, and resource overuse. These are issues that other municipalities face, but they’re amplified by Seoul’s population density. The Seoul government, led by Mayor Park Won-soon, who has a history of social activism and innovative problem-solving, has embraced the sharing economy as a way to remedy some of these issues and is taking a proactive approach to utilizing and growing the city’s sharing infrastructure.

...


The city has also committed to supporting sharing in the digital realm. Creative Commons Korea (CCK) is an instrumental partner in the city’s plan to share information and resources about the Sharing City project. The organization created and powers a newly launched online portal called ShareHub that serves to educate and inform citizens about the Sharing City, share news about the sharing economy and provide a directory of sharing services.

“The directory will hopefully provide an opportunity for discovery,” says full-time Creative Commons Korea activist Diane DaYe Jung. “People will have the services at their fingertips and it will be more convenient for them look up what they want and need." She adds, “hopefully, we’ll get people’s attention and let them see how sharing is convenient and more reasonable than traditional consumption...”

Working with CCK also ensures that the sharing spirit extends to digital works including art, photos and public data." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-seoul-the-next-great-sharing-city)

Characteristics

The Sharing Economy Agenda

By Cat Johnson:

"Below are the key actions the city is taking, all part of a comprehensive plan that encompasses public awareness, business incubation, new regulation, and mobilization of the city's underutilized assets:

  • Vetting and designating sharing nonprofits and corporations - By putting the city's stamp of approval on select sharing services, the city builds the public's trust in the sharing economy and introduces citizens to proven and trusted sharing services.
  • Promoting sharing enterprises - City-wide promotion of sharing enterprises generates buzz and strengthens the public's perception of the Sharing City as something that crosses demographic boundaries.
  • Publicizing Seoul’s brand as the Sharing City - Branding Seoul as one of the great cities for sharing is a powerful way to attract international attention, accelerate the city's sharing economy and position the city as a forward-thinking hub of innovation.
  • Subsidizing the expenses of 10 sharing enterprises with 250 million won (U.S. $240,000, EUR 180,000). Providing 10 sharing enterprises with the funding to either launch or scale up their platform gives the enterprises a bit of financial breathing room to focus on building or enhancing their service.
  • Incubating approximately 20 sharing startups with office space, consultation, and subsidies. Providing space, guidance and some funding to sharing startups will allow businesses to take their service to the next level and the city to support innovative ideas and thinkers.
  • Creating a Seoul Sharing Promotion Committee made up of representatives from a variety of sectors including academic, legal, press, welfare, transportation and more. Having a team of representatives from numerous sectors who are all on board with the Sharing City plan is a good way to extend the reach of the sharing economy, make sure that it's being promoted appropriately in the various sectors and ensure that sharing is part of the discussion when decisions within those sectors are being made.
  • Creating an International Sharing City Conference - Creating a Sharing City Conference further brands Seoul as an innovative locale and provides other municipalities from around the world a chance to see a sharing city plan in action.

There's more. Officials are also working to correct obstructive statutes or systems and facilitate communication between sharing enterprises and the central government. The Social Innovation Division will handle sharing-related civilian proposals and requests.

In addition, the city is introducing a 492 vehicle car sharing service; opening select government parking lots and municipal buildings to the public during off-hours and idle days; connecting senior citizens who have extra rooms with students who need a room; installing tool libraries and shared bookshelves in communities throughout the city; and more.

Sharing enterprises chosen for city support include home-stay platforms Kozaza and Labo Korea; Woozoo, a company that remodels old houses into shared houses; Wonderlend and Billi, companies that facilitate the lending and borrowing of idle goods; car sharing service SoCar; Kiple, a children’s clothing exchange; The Open Closet, a company that distributes donated suits to young job seekers; the Living and Art Creative Center, a creative writing and art education space; and Zipbob, a meal sharing platform." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-seoul-the-next-great-sharing-city)

Neighborhood Strategy

"To build trust in sharing companies, the Sharing City Seoul project is being rolled out through its 25 boroughs known as kus. Seoul's kus are similar in size and budget. Each ku has its own mayor and local government. Because government-endorsed businesses are trusted by citizens, SMG introduced the sharing economy to two kus by endorsing Kiple, the children’s clothing exchange. The experiment proved to be successful -- Kiple doubled sales in one year.

With this success, more kus want to join the trial. To fuel growth further, SMG created a positive competition between kus for sharing-related government grants." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world)


Status

One Year After

Cat Johnson:

"Mayor Park is leading a wave of social innovation in Seoul and opening a new chapter in the city's history. The Sharing City is a sharp turn from the rapid growth of the last 40 years, but it’s one that the city government is fully embracing. And one that has the potential to transform "The Miracle on the Han.”

Shareable’s co-founder Neal Gorenflo, who recently visited Seoul, points out that this ability to change quickly could catalyze their sharing economy. “If the South Korean people decide this is where they want to go,” he says, “I think they'll move quickly—just as they were able to move quickly to become a modern country.”

The city’s density, its tech-enabled citizenry, and world-class infrastructure can support Seoul’s plan to become a global leader of the sharing movement. As Su Jeong Kim of the Social Innovation Division explains, Seoul has a unique environment with 60 percent of its inhabitants living in apartment buildings. The city is leveraging this by catalyzing the formation of lending libraries in apartment buildings. There are now 32 apartment building lending libraries. While this is a small number for a mega-city, apartment building lending libraries have the potential to become social hubs for Seoul's many vertical communities.

“Seoul is a very dense city,” Kim says, explaining that a quarter of all South Koreans live in Seoul. “You can imagine how dense our city is. As a result, there are lots of apartment complexes with 1,000-2,000 people living together. It’s a difficult situation for community-building, but at the same time, it’s a very nice environment to gather...”

In-dong Cho, director-general of the Seoul Innovation Department, stresses the importance of utilizing these densely-populated apartments in rebuilding a sense of community.

“In order to regenerate communities in apartment complexes,” he says, “we recommend people establish share bookshelves, share libraries, share gardens and common tool warehouses, and to organize community activities through subsidies or grants.” He adds, “These movements toward sharing will restore dissolved communities and revive sharing culture in citizens’ daily lives.”

Grassroots citizen-driven sharing is just one aspect of the Sharing City. Another is official support for tech startups and other organizations working to catalyze more sharing in Seoul. But rather than taking a top-down approach, the city is acting as partner for emerging sharing initiatives.

“It is not desirable for government to directly intervene in the market to promote the sharing economy,” says Cho. “The city needs to build infrastructure such as law, institution and social trust capital—the city needs to pave the way and strengthen the ecosystem for the sharing economy to thrive.” He adds that the sharing policy model of SMG is not a top-down nor bottom-up approach. “This is a creative, private-public partnership model of Seoul’s own.”

Seoul’s Sharing City strategy has three prongs: change outdated laws and systems; support sharing enterprises; and encourage citizen participation. Dozens of programs have been launched to support the initiative. They range in size from small, shared bookshelves to large-scale carsharing. Here are the key programs, some with initial results.

Public Buildings: Since the launch of the Sharing City, 779 public buildings have been opened to the public during idle hours for events, meetings, and more. These buildings have been utilized over 22,000 times by Seoul citizens.

Startup Incubation: 20 teams were selected for the Youth Business Startup Incubation program where they were provided office space, funds, and training or consulting.

ShareHub: Run by Creative Commons Korea, ShareHub is the go-to place to find all that can be shared in Seoul.

Financial Support: 461 million won ($450,000) has been invested in 27 sharing organizations or businesses. Among these are platforms that facilitate Airbnb-style homesharing, children’s clothing exchanges, parking space sharing, and goods sharing. These projects resulted in 359 shared parking lots; a 68% increase in homestays; and a doubling of the amount of children’s clothing shared from 18,000 to 40,000 items.

Startup School: To encourage entrepreneurialism, officials launched a program to help entrepreneurs understand the sharing economy and support them in creating sharing businesses.

Housing and Inter-generational Connection: To address the housing crisis and reduce the social isolation of seniors, a program was created to match young people with idle rooms in seniors’ houses. There have been 28 matches to date.

Seoul Youth Hub: Another initiative of the SMG, Seoul Youth Hub is a place for young adults to come together face-to-face to design the future society.

Car Sharing: There are 564 car sharing locations in Seoul with over 1,000 cars that have been shared 282,000 times through companies such as Socar and Greencar.

Bartering for Goods: Using e-Poomasi, people can barter for goods or services without using money. There have been 21,052 sharing transactions by 5,685 citizens in 15 districts so far.

Open Data Plaza: 1,300 data sets have been released to the public for use in business or civil society.

Lending Libraries: 32 lending libraries have been opened for books, tool rental and repair (plus woodworking programs).

Public Wi-Fi: 1,992 wireless access points have been established at markets, parks and government offices.

Seoul Photo Bank: Nearly 250,000 photos have been uploaded to this platform that sources images from citizens and the government. The photo bank is due to launch in July.

While these may seem like modest results for a mega-city, Mayor Park has a plan to scale the sharing economy." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world)


2015

"Results on the ground have been mixed, and the initiative remains a work in progress. Sharing City Seoul hasn't taken off as hoped, and awareness of the sharing economy in the city remains low.

In an unpublished survey of city residents by the Seoul Institute, only 12 percent were aware of the sharing economy. A study conducted by Maeil Business Newspaper found that less than two out of every 10 respondents were aware of the sharing economy, while 55.6 percent of respondents replied, “I am not very familiar with it” or “I am not aware of it at all.” When asked, “Are you willing to pay for goods or services other people do not use?” 59 percent responded negatively, unaware of the advantages of sharing.

Despite its three years in operation, “many people are still unaware of the project as a whole,” Seoul’s Sharing Initiative team explained by email.


...


Even as the project has struggled to catch on in the general public, it has produced some real economic and ecological results. According to official estimates, sharing has enabled city residents to save 12 billion won annually, while the city has saved 1.18 trillion won. Sharing projects have also generated 1,280 new jobs, while reducing CO2 emissions by 29,800 tons.

On a smaller scale, the sharing movement in Seoul is emerging in schools, where students of all ages run educational programs about the sharing economy, create sharing clubs, and start groups to share unused school supplies. Some of the children have written songs that celebrate sharing.

“The lessons students learn from these kinds of sharing activities and education,” writes the Sharing Initiative team, “will carry into adulthood, proliferating the idea of sharing on a daily basis for generations to come.”" (http://www.shareable.net/blog/despite-slow-adoption-seoul-doubles-down-on-sharing-city-project)


Plans for the Future

Cat Johnson:

Sharing City Seoul supports both the creation of new sharing businesses and the growth of existing companies. Some of the standouts of Seoul’s sharing economy are: Kiple, a children’s clothing exchange; SoCar, a carsharing service; Zipbob, a p2p mealsharing platform that has a lot of traction; Kozaza, which is like Airbnb for traditional Korean houses, known as Hanok, that Gorenflo describes as “very beautiful, cozy, human-scale houses”; home sharing platforms BnBHero and WooZoo; suit rental platform OpenCloset; and Wisdome, a knowledge-sharing platform. Several of these businesses have seen 100 percent growth since the launch of Seoul’s Sharing City initiative.

To build trust in sharing companies, the Sharing City Seoul project is being rolled out through its 25 boroughs known as kus. Seoul's kus are similar in size and budget. Each ku has its own mayor and local government. Because government-endorsed businesses are trusted by citizens, SMG introduced the sharing economy to two kus by endorsing Kiple, the children’s clothing exchange. The experiment proved to be successful -- Kiple doubled sales in one year.

With this success, more kus want to join the trial. To fuel growth further, SMG created a positive competition between kus for sharing-related government grants.

Like other cities, the sharing economy in Seoul chafes against outdated regulation that hampers sharing. Familiar issues, including regulations around car insurance and home sharing, are being addressed as part of the Sharing City initiative. Leaders are working with insurance providers and regulators to develop solutions.

“The main reason why SMG has actively implemented the sharing policies initiatives is that we want to expedite and boost the sharing economy through public-private partnership,” says Cho. “The startup businesses need to overcome a lot difficulties and obstructions to establish themselves. They cannot avoid confrontation and conflicts with existing industries, laws and regulations.”

He explains that startups will have difficulty addressing these matters on their own and that this is why SMG is working to reform regulation and lay a foundation for a sharing economy ecosystem.

“In other words,” Cho says, “the city of Seoul helps the sharing companies to take root well and settle down successfully in their markets.”

Many of the key decisions for the Sharing City project are made by the Sharing Promotion Committee comprising 12 members from the private sector and three from government. This reflects the city’s strategy to grow the sharing economy through public-private partnerships rather than in a top-down fashion.

Seoul is the sharing leader in South Korea, but other cities, including Busan, the second largest city, and Gwangju, are following Seoul's lead with similarly ambitious plans.

Around the world, cities have tiptoed into the waters of the sharing economy, but too often, it’s little more than a gesture. Seoul is a shining exception.

“They’re serious about it,” says Gorenflo, pointing out that other sharing city projects that have been announced with little follow through. San Francisco’s Mayor Lee was recently criticized because he created, but did little to nothing with, his Sharing Economy Working Group. Similarly, 18 mayors signed on to a Shareable Cities Resolution at the US conference of mayors in 2013, but there doesn’t appear to be any follow on activity there either.

“A big lesson is, if you’re going to publicly declare yourself a sharing city, you better do something substantial or you’re going to get criticized,” says Gorenflo. “Seoul’s effort has substance. There are significant resources behind it. It’s well-integrated into their plans, and with their large innovation department, they’ll be able to implement it.” He continues, “Another lesson for cities is that you have to invest in social innovation; you need to experiment to find solutions to social problems, and you need resources to run experiments. That’s what the Sharing City is, it’s an experiment, and it may be the most important one in the world.” (http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world)


Discussion

City Policy

Cat Johnson:

Like many municipal officials, Mayor Park and the SMG face challenges with global sharing companies such as Uber and Airbnb. In May, South Korean lawmakers passed a bill, aimed at Uber, to ban taxi services provided by private drivers. Last year, the city launched KakaoTaxi, its own local taxi-hailing app, complete with geolocation, information on drivers and users, and a rating system. This kind of local-oriented sharing solution makes Seoul even more of a sharing city, argues Gorenflo.

To address tensions between sharing businesses and existing laws around transportation, insurance, tourism and more, SMG created a Sharing Facilitation Committee. The committee aims to improve laws and policies that “are hindrance to the growth of sharing businesses.” SMG plans to revise existing statutes and create more institutional support for sharing, such as enacting special laws.

By hosting forums that encourage public input on sharing laws and reforms, city officials hope to engage Seoul citizens to create a sharing city that serves everyone, whether through tech-enabled apps or neighborhood-level sharing initiatives aimed at building community.

The SMG’s vision is for a city-wide sharing culture and movement that is led by citizens rather than government. Such a vision, explains the sharing initiative team, “will accommodate the needs of the elderly, and others who may be unfamiliar with smartphones, and that the sharing culture will naturally begin to share products and services without a particular platform. In other words, through sharing, we hope that struggling communities can experience a sense of revival, leading to the regeneration of local areas and eliminating some of the problems of urban life.” (http://www.shareable.net/blog/despite-slow-adoption-seoul-doubles-down-on-sharing-city-project)

More at: Seoul's Sharing City Policy Strategy

Examples

Cat Johnson:

"Based on the most successful sharing companies in Seoul – such as the carsharing platform SoCar, homesharing service Kozaza, travel experience sharing platform Myrealtrip, children’s clothing sharing company Kiple, and several parking lot sharing platforms – officials are creating models that can be replicated.

Seoul’s most successful sharing enterprises are showing the way through their impressive results: Kiple has shared 8 million pieces of clothing and is now affiliated with 230 daycare centers throughout Seoul; car-sharing companies Green Car and SoCar, created in 2013, boast nearly 500,000 members combined; Modu-Parking has shared 10,000 parking spaces in residential areas and at institutional and organizational lots.

Among the growing network of sharing economy businesses and services in Seoul are:

  • Honghap Valley, a startup incubator
  • Joinus Korea, a cultural sharing service for people to ask questions and get a human response in their own language
  • Lingofly, a language sharing and learning platform
  • OnOffMix, a platform to help people share and discover live events and gatherings
  • Open Closet, a business suit sharing business
  • Space Noah, a coworking space for social innovators
  • WooZoo, a shared housing service that connects people with similar interests
  • Zipbob, a social dining platform
  • AUD, a social cooperative that created ShareTyping, an app that provides real-time transcription for the hearing-impaired

City officials are also promoting the sharing of urban spaces, opening up public buildings for public use during off-hours, and extending open hours at public museums and art galleries." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/despite-slow-adoption-seoul-doubles-down-on-sharing-city-project)

Project list

"Seoul’s Sharing City strategy has three prongs: change outdated laws and systems; support sharing enterprises; and encourage citizen participation. Dozens of programs have been launched to support the initiative. They range in size from small, shared bookshelves to large-scale carsharing. Here are the key programs, some with initial results.

Public Buildings: Since the launch of the Sharing City, 779 public buildings have been opened to the public during idle hours for events, meetings, and more. These buildings have been utilized over 22,000 times by Seoul citizens.

Startup Incubation: 20 teams were selected for the Youth Business Startup Incubation program where they were provided office space, funds, and training or consulting.

ShareHub: Run by Creative Commons Korea, ShareHub is the go-to place to find all that can be shared in Seoul.

Financial Support: 461 million won ($450,000) has been invested in 27 sharing organizations or businesses. Among these are platforms that facilitate Airbnb-style homesharing, children’s clothing exchanges, parking space sharing, and goods sharing. These projects resulted in 359 shared parking lots; a 68% increase in homestays; and a doubling of the amount of children’s clothing shared from 18,000 to 40,000 items.

Startup School: To encourage entrepreneurialism, officials launched a program to help entrepreneurs understand the sharing economy and support them in creating sharing businesses.

Housing and Inter-generational Connection: To address the housing crisis and reduce the social isolation of seniors, a program was created to match young people with idle rooms in seniors’ houses. There have been 28 matches to date.

Seoul Youth Hub: Another initiative of the SMG, Seoul Youth Hub is a place for young adults to come together face-to-face to design the future society.

Car Sharing: There are 564 car sharing locations in Seoul with over 1,000 cars that have been shared 282,000 times through companies such as Socar and Greencar.

Bartering for Goods: Using e-Poomasi, people can barter for goods or services without using money. There have been 21,052 sharing transactions by 5,685 citizens in 15 districts so far.

Open Data Plaza: 1,300 data sets have been released to the public for use in business or civil society.

Lending Libraries: 32 lending libraries have been opened for books, tool rental and repair (plus woodworking programs).

Public Wi-Fi: 1,992 wireless access points have been established at markets, parks and government offices.

Seoul Photo Bank: Nearly 250,000 photos have been uploaded to this platform that sources images from citizens and the government. The photo bank is due to launch in July.

While these may seem like modest results for a mega-city, Mayor Park has a plan to scale the sharing economy." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world)


Business List

"Some of the standouts of Seoul’s sharing economy are: Kiple, a children’s clothing exchange; SoCar, a carsharing service; Zipbob, a p2p mealsharing platform that has a lot of traction; Kozaza, which is like Airbnb for traditional Korean houses, known as Hanok, that Gorenflo describes as “very beautiful, cozy, human-scale houses”; home sharing platforms BnBHero and WooZoo; suit rental platform OpenCloset; and Wisdome, a knowledge-sharing platform. Several of these businesses have seen 100 percent growth since the launch of Seoul’s Sharing City initiative." (http://www.shareable.net/blog/sharing-city-seoul-a-model-for-the-world)


More Information

Research Project

"Monica Bernardi, an Italian PhD student writing her thesis on sharing cities, explains that this sharing ecosystem is part of a larger Korean social entrepreneurship landscape, in which everyone is encouraged to become a changemaker. To help this social economy can thrive, the SMG opened the Social Enterprise Development Center which supports development of an ecosystem that spurs self-development and continuous growth.

“In my interviews,” Bernardi writes, “I registered a lively, energetic and confident atmosphere. The impression is that all these people sincerely believed in the new opportunities that [the] sharing economy carries.” (http://www.shareable.net/blog/despite-slow-adoption-seoul-doubles-down-on-sharing-city-project)