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Car-Sharing Services Take Paris by StormBy Katie Fehrenbacher June 28, 2013

Walk down one of the narrow streets of Paris and there’s a good chance you’ll stumble upon one of the

world’s most sophisticated car-sharing networks. The Autolib electric car system—marked by the tiny, boxy

electric Bluecars and the neon-hued car chargers—is run by a public-private partnership and has some

65,000 users, with a goal to have 3,000 cars available this year.

But Autolib isn’t even the biggest car-sharing network in Paris. That would be upstart Drivy, which has

around 10,000 cars and 115,000 users, according to founder and Chief Executive Officer Paulin Dementhon.

The three-year-old Autolib, like its American peers Getaround and RelayRides, has created a platform thatenables car owners to rent out their own cars to local drivers.

Drivy is one of an estimated nine car-sharing companies operating in Paris. The competition has gotten fierce

enough that recently, one competitor (Buzzcar) bought another (CityzenCar). Buzzcar, which has more than

50,000 users who share 7,000 cars, was started by Zipcar (CAR) founder Robin Chase.

Cars are just one of the types of things Parisians are sharing via this new brand of website, called everything

from collaborative consumption to Web sharing to the mesh. Airbnb has a sizable user base in the city (I’m

writing this from a Parisian flat rented on Airbnb); one of the earliest Web-sharing companies, Zilok, which

enables users to rent out tools, is based in Paris.

There’s so much action going on that a company called OuiShare—launched as part think tank, part mediacompany—to track the local scene. Dementhon tells me during an interview at Drivy’s offices: “We [Paris]

are the perfect country for collaborative consumption.” My question is: Why?

One of the obvious drivers of at least the car-sharing economy in Paris is the city’s crowded streets and lack

of parking spaces. It’s not just that traffic blocks the motorways at most times (which it does), but parking in

the city’s winding streets is utterly impacted. I used an Uber car to get to a meeting this week, and it took

double the time it would have taken me in San Francisco to drive across the city because of traffic and small

streets filled with parked, and double parked, cars.

It’s also expensive to own and operate a car in Paris. Gas, car ownership, and driving on toll roads all cost a

lot of money. That’s one of the first reasons people sign up for peer-to-peer car-sharing companies in Paris,

as well as ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar. Car owners can get help covering the cost of owning their

cars, and drivers can rent out cars for cheaper than owning their own. For ride sharing, the collaborativeconsumption economy can reduce the cost of driving.

Parking is also bad enough in the city that if there are enough cars in the car-sharing company’s network, it’s

likely that one of the shared cars is pretty close to where the user is. Drivy markets its service as being closer

to where its drivers are (now that it’s got 115,000 cars signed up). There’s an immanent network effect once

a company gets big enough. Autolib also has the added bonus of designated parking spots and one-way

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driving trips.

But beyond the crowded streets and the car-sharing opportunity, Dementhon thinks there’s something more

inherent in the Parisian culture that’s spurring the Web-sharing economy in the city. Paris is a city that has awell-off population, but it’s also a place that is relaxed enough to accept some of the extra time and attention

it takes to make Web sharing work.

“We’re less square. We tolerate less organization,” Dementhon says. Anyone who’s rented a car from a car-

sharing network (particularly right after someone has used it), or an apartment off of Airbnb, knows what

Dementhon is talking about. It takes some getting used to, and there are lots of things that can be unexpected,

such as less-than-clean cars and apartments or quirky cars and apartment owners.

Paris has such a vibrant Web-sharing culture that Americans could stand to learn a thing or two from their

Parisian counterparts. BlaBlaCar found success with ride sharing, while that type of service has failed to take

off in the U.S. And Drivy seemed to get its target market right sooner in its lifetime than comparable

American companies by focusing on day-long and multi-day-long trips, instead of pushing to have its carsrented out by the hour.

Drivy is now particularly focused on making sure its services—for cars and drivers that have problems—is

robust and takes care of its users. BlaBlaCar has also spent years developing its services—from ratings toengagement to activities—that build trust in its community.

The car technology aspect has been secondary to the Parisian companies, while developing and taking care

of their community has been more important. Drivy hasn’t focused much on the automated tech aspect of itsservice yet. This contrasts with American counterparts Getaround and RelayRides, who have highlighted the

automated unlocking and locking systems as major parts of their companies. Dementhon tells me that Drivywill add the automated tech aspect soon enough but is still waiting and looking at how things like iOS for cars

changes the game.

Both BlaBlaCar and Drivy want to build on their successes in Paris and across Europe and expand theirservices, but are hesitant to rush into launching in the U.S. The reality is that Paris, and Europe in general, isn’tsuch a big market for an enterprising startup. Latin America might be more interesting to Drivy when it wants

to branch out. When these companies do expand outside Europe, they’ll take what they learned with them.

We think Web-sharing startups and tech companies in Paris, as well as across London and Berlin, areinteresting enough that we’re increasing our coverage of the scene. We’re holding our second annual

Structure:Europe conference in London in late September this year, and we’re looking for startups to join ourlineup.

Also from GigaOM:

RelayRides: Making Money From Long-Term Car Sharing (subscription required)

Connect My House! A First Look at the SmartThings Hub and Sensor Platform

Microsoft Tightens Its Grip on the Xbox One, With New Rules for Developers

Texas and Turkey Show Why Twitter Is Often the Only Media Outlet That Matters

Personal Assistant App Donna Goes Live in iOS App Store

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Katie Fehrenbacher is a Senior Writer & Features Editor for GigaOM.

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