21
de Febrer
de
2017
Act.
21
de Febrer
de
2017
It was seven years ago that Mar Alarcón put her car, a Class A Mercedes, on SocialCar, the online platform for renting vehicles between private individuals. "I rented it to a businessman who lived in Sant Cugat and who had to go and see family in Bilbao," recalls the founder of the tech platform. It was 2011, a time when the collaborative economy had still not become a structural phenomenon but when a model of peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing could help to generate extra income for vehicle owners.
Alarcón says she comes from the world of sustainability. A graduate in Law and IESE's Management programme, before setting up SocialCar, alongside her husband she created SocialEnergy, the first renewable energy company. "After having our second child, I decided to leave the project and set up SocialCar, for some time I had been thinking about the future of sustainable mobility, it motivated me to optimise resources and look into new models," she tells VIA Empresa in an interview.
After seven years, it has become one of the main online services for renting vehicles between private individuals in Spain, with more than 150,000 users. Proof of the project's solidity is the recent strategic alliance with Racc, which has acquired a 6% share of the Catalan startup; it is the first alliance between a platform of the collaborative economy and a player in the automobile sector with more than 100 years of history.
You were pioneers in launching a car rental service between private individuals.
Yes, we were the first and we were alone in Spain for three or four years. Being the first to open a market is very stimulating but also very difficult, it has a very high cost in making converts. The four of us who began the business supplied the initial capital. We had it very clear that before getting someone else involved or selling a slice of the cake that we to make sure that the model worked, as there were a lot of unknowns at the beginning. Once we were sure, we did a first investment round at the beginning of 2015, with Luis Martín Cabiedes, Vincent Rosso (ex-BlaBlaCar), Pau Serracanta from Dorna Sports and other business angels. They are all smart money. We always give preference to investors who bring value, both in the personal and professional sphere.
What is the typical profile of SocialCar's 150,000 users?
They are around 35. They are people who are used to buying online. Middle class, with a digital bent. And the main cities are Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
One of your aims is optimising the profitability of vehicles.
It is crazy! The car is only used for 2% of the time, some 98% of the time it is parked! I went to London in 2003 and I left my car in Barcelona, doing nothing in a parking space, paying €120 rent every month. I had to ask my brother to take it for a run! Just as I was going to spend some time in China, I met a couple from London who were moving to Barcelona and who needed a vehicle. I rented them mine and they used it for six months. I ended up selling it to them. When I got back from China with my husband, we both needed cars, but in truth I needed one very little; I only put petrol in it once a year! My car was the first one on SocialCar.
Is there a conviction or philosophy among carsharing users that goes beyond reducing costs and saving time?
There are two types. The user who believes in the collaborative economy and signs up to this project because it is sustainable and the user who is motivated by saving money. However, the one who begins motivated by saving money, later becomes motivated by conviction. Do you sell things on Wallapop because you need €10? No. The economic motivation becomes a habit.
Mar Alarcón, at the SocialCar HQ. Lali Álvarez
Collaborative economy applications do not get on so well with traditional sectors... Spain is the first country of the 28 EU member states in which BlaBlaCar has had legal problems.
In the end we are tech platforms that put A and B in touch to carry out a mutually beneficial activity. We are marketplaces, we find supply and demand and put them together. We are a platform that is very involved in the operation to ensure that these people carry out an activity safely and with guarantees. I am not a rent-a-car, I make it easier for people to rent vehicles without a driver, but I do not have a fleet of vehicles. Many tech platforms have run into problems if they operate in sectors that need administrative licences. In fact, vehicles without a driver were deregulated in 2010. BlaBlaCar is not unfair competition because it is not a transport service.
If the users make money can it be collaborative economy?
When I launched SocialCar I didn't even know what the collaborative economy was, in fact, we used call it collaborative consumption. In 2010, we wanted to create a solution for sustainable mobility. We imagined a fleet of shared electric cars, like Bicing with electric cars. And this is where SocialCar came from. There have been thousands of attempts to define the concept of the collaborative economy. Why can't it be collaborative economy if the asset is your own and you talk directly as equals? If there is no money, it would just be a traditional exchange. The collaborative economy on the small scale has always existed, it is the net that has made it global and scalable.
First the society consumes it and then the authorities regulate it... Does SocialCar operate legally or outside the law?
SocialCar operates within the legal framework. Remember that I come from the legal world and when we began I thought about how the owner should deal with this this rental, what is it? It is not black money, there is a traceable transaction, through a virtual payment channel from bank to bank. We took the tax laws and laws that regulate transport, all we knew was that we would be facilitating a specific activity between two private individuals. I have never had the feeling that we are operating illegally. If the law does not prohibit it, then it is not illegal. It is impossible to regulate innovation, the issue is the speed of legislation. I am on the board of the Transport and Mobility sector of the Collaborative Economy Committee of the Catalan government. It is good that they talk to us and want to know our opinion, but since the first meeting two years ago nothing has appeared.
Does carsharing and car rental between private individuals harm the automobile industry? What role do car brands play?
They have to get their acts together. In 2011, I went to the automotive conference of IESE where the general manager of Avancar only spoke for five minutes. Five years later I have noticed a change; in this year's meeting there was talk of sharing cars, connected cars, tech platforms... The car industry is very good at innovation and we are not a threat to the sector. We have to work together.
Are there companies that prefer to bypass car leasing and choose the direct rental of vehicles?
There are cases among self-employed individuals and small firms. I do not know if it happens with large companies, but it is a winning strategy in terms of tax and savings. Why as a company do you have to provide each salesperson with a car? Rent cars on SocialCar or from the employees themselves who arrive in their cars and leave them all day in the company car park. For example, if most employees at HP, which is in Sant Cugat, go to work by car and there is a network of salespeople who need a vehicle, rent out your car to another employee! You save on your tax burden and what's more provide an incentive to the employee, so that while he is working his car is generating income.
Where is mobility in cities going? Is it about combining models?
Yes, we have to think about the end user, as the more mobility options they have, the better. Imagine that you can take the train, Bicing, SocialCar, Avancar... and all on the same card; it would be fantastic. Each option provides a service, they are complementary offers, perhaps you want to carshare by the hour because you have to go and get someone from the airport, or you need a car for three to five days for a longer journey out of town.
Will you go back to the initial idea of shared electric cars?
The electric car will be part of the equation, but right now it causes a lot of problems in terms of charging points... People first have to get used to driving this type of vehicle, it is a more efficient way of driving and then we need a network of charging points. In Spain the renewable sector has been ruined, I don't know how it will end, but that is a different chapter.
Alarcón says she comes from the world of sustainability. A graduate in Law and IESE's Management programme, before setting up SocialCar, alongside her husband she created SocialEnergy, the first renewable energy company. "After having our second child, I decided to leave the project and set up SocialCar, for some time I had been thinking about the future of sustainable mobility, it motivated me to optimise resources and look into new models," she tells VIA Empresa in an interview.
After seven years, it has become one of the main online services for renting vehicles between private individuals in Spain, with more than 150,000 users. Proof of the project's solidity is the recent strategic alliance with Racc, which has acquired a 6% share of the Catalan startup; it is the first alliance between a platform of the collaborative economy and a player in the automobile sector with more than 100 years of history.
You were pioneers in launching a car rental service between private individuals.
Yes, we were the first and we were alone in Spain for three or four years. Being the first to open a market is very stimulating but also very difficult, it has a very high cost in making converts. The four of us who began the business supplied the initial capital. We had it very clear that before getting someone else involved or selling a slice of the cake that we to make sure that the model worked, as there were a lot of unknowns at the beginning. Once we were sure, we did a first investment round at the beginning of 2015, with Luis Martín Cabiedes, Vincent Rosso (ex-BlaBlaCar), Pau Serracanta from Dorna Sports and other business angels. They are all smart money. We always give preference to investors who bring value, both in the personal and professional sphere.
What is the typical profile of SocialCar's 150,000 users?
They are around 35. They are people who are used to buying online. Middle class, with a digital bent. And the main cities are Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
One of your aims is optimising the profitability of vehicles.
It is crazy! The car is only used for 2% of the time, some 98% of the time it is parked! I went to London in 2003 and I left my car in Barcelona, doing nothing in a parking space, paying €120 rent every month. I had to ask my brother to take it for a run! Just as I was going to spend some time in China, I met a couple from London who were moving to Barcelona and who needed a vehicle. I rented them mine and they used it for six months. I ended up selling it to them. When I got back from China with my husband, we both needed cars, but in truth I needed one very little; I only put petrol in it once a year! My car was the first one on SocialCar.
Is there a conviction or philosophy among carsharing users that goes beyond reducing costs and saving time?
There are two types. The user who believes in the collaborative economy and signs up to this project because it is sustainable and the user who is motivated by saving money. However, the one who begins motivated by saving money, later becomes motivated by conviction. Do you sell things on Wallapop because you need €10? No. The economic motivation becomes a habit.
Mar Alarcón, at the SocialCar HQ. Lali Álvarez
Collaborative economy applications do not get on so well with traditional sectors... Spain is the first country of the 28 EU member states in which BlaBlaCar has had legal problems.
In the end we are tech platforms that put A and B in touch to carry out a mutually beneficial activity. We are marketplaces, we find supply and demand and put them together. We are a platform that is very involved in the operation to ensure that these people carry out an activity safely and with guarantees. I am not a rent-a-car, I make it easier for people to rent vehicles without a driver, but I do not have a fleet of vehicles. Many tech platforms have run into problems if they operate in sectors that need administrative licences. In fact, vehicles without a driver were deregulated in 2010. BlaBlaCar is not unfair competition because it is not a transport service.
If the users make money can it be collaborative economy?
When I launched SocialCar I didn't even know what the collaborative economy was, in fact, we used call it collaborative consumption. In 2010, we wanted to create a solution for sustainable mobility. We imagined a fleet of shared electric cars, like Bicing with electric cars. And this is where SocialCar came from. There have been thousands of attempts to define the concept of the collaborative economy. Why can't it be collaborative economy if the asset is your own and you talk directly as equals? If there is no money, it would just be a traditional exchange. The collaborative economy on the small scale has always existed, it is the net that has made it global and scalable.
First the society consumes it and then the authorities regulate it... Does SocialCar operate legally or outside the law?
SocialCar operates within the legal framework. Remember that I come from the legal world and when we began I thought about how the owner should deal with this this rental, what is it? It is not black money, there is a traceable transaction, through a virtual payment channel from bank to bank. We took the tax laws and laws that regulate transport, all we knew was that we would be facilitating a specific activity between two private individuals. I have never had the feeling that we are operating illegally. If the law does not prohibit it, then it is not illegal. It is impossible to regulate innovation, the issue is the speed of legislation. I am on the board of the Transport and Mobility sector of the Collaborative Economy Committee of the Catalan government. It is good that they talk to us and want to know our opinion, but since the first meeting two years ago nothing has appeared.
Does carsharing and car rental between private individuals harm the automobile industry? What role do car brands play?
They have to get their acts together. In 2011, I went to the automotive conference of IESE where the general manager of Avancar only spoke for five minutes. Five years later I have noticed a change; in this year's meeting there was talk of sharing cars, connected cars, tech platforms... The car industry is very good at innovation and we are not a threat to the sector. We have to work together.
Are there companies that prefer to bypass car leasing and choose the direct rental of vehicles?
There are cases among self-employed individuals and small firms. I do not know if it happens with large companies, but it is a winning strategy in terms of tax and savings. Why as a company do you have to provide each salesperson with a car? Rent cars on SocialCar or from the employees themselves who arrive in their cars and leave them all day in the company car park. For example, if most employees at HP, which is in Sant Cugat, go to work by car and there is a network of salespeople who need a vehicle, rent out your car to another employee! You save on your tax burden and what's more provide an incentive to the employee, so that while he is working his car is generating income.
Where is mobility in cities going? Is it about combining models?
Yes, we have to think about the end user, as the more mobility options they have, the better. Imagine that you can take the train, Bicing, SocialCar, Avancar... and all on the same card; it would be fantastic. Each option provides a service, they are complementary offers, perhaps you want to carshare by the hour because you have to go and get someone from the airport, or you need a car for three to five days for a longer journey out of town.
Will you go back to the initial idea of shared electric cars?
The electric car will be part of the equation, but right now it causes a lot of problems in terms of charging points... People first have to get used to driving this type of vehicle, it is a more efficient way of driving and then we need a network of charging points. In Spain the renewable sector has been ruined, I don't know how it will end, but that is a different chapter.