Remove the roadblocks

IT IS not hard to find evidence of the success of the “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars and other underused assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet. One pointer is the burgeoning of demand and supply. Airbnb, founded in San Francisco in 2008, claims that 11m people have used its website to find a place to stay. Lyft, a company that matches people needing rides and drivers wanting a few dollars, has spread from San Francisco to 30-odd American cities. Another sign is the frothy values bestowed on sharing-economy companies: Airbnb is reckoned to be worth $10 billion, more than hotel chains such as Hyatt and Wyndham, and Lyft recently raised $250m from venture capitalists. But perhaps the most flattering—and least welcome—indicator of the sharing economy’s rise is the energy being devoted by governments, courts and competitors to thwarting it (see article).