HooYu publishes report on trust and identity in the sharing economy

Global identity confirmation service firm HooYu has released a new report titled “Trust & Identity in the Sharing Economy” that reveals that businesses operating in the sharing economy are being hindered by consumer concerns over trust in the identity of the other party in the transaction.

The report finds that despite the significant growth from millions of users sharing, swapping and renting, 68% of British citizens have not yet performed an online peer-to-peer transaction such as purchasing an item from an online marketplace or renting a vacation property.

In comparison, 69% of Americans have already conducted these same peer-to-peer online transactions.

Additionally, 39% of Americans have purchased or sold an item via an online marketplace such as Gumtree or Craigslist, compared to just 11% in the UK.

The report, which analyzes participation rates and consumer attitudes to trusting strangers in peer-to-peer and sharing economy transactions both in the UK and the US, finds that consumers are unlikely to conduct these kinds of transactions without first getting assurance about the other person’s identity.

Research finds that 61% of people will not or are uncertain to trust without checking identity compared to 39% that are either happy to trust or would reluctantly do so before they had assurance about the other person’s identity.

In the report, 79% of respondents said they would be much more likely to trust a stranger online if they were sent a comprehensive ID confirmation report about the unknown person.

These findings can be found in HooYu’s Trust & Identity in the Sharing Economy report and reveals participation rates and a varying degree of concern over participant identity across all the various types of sharing economy activity including holiday rentals, auction sites, car sharing, ride sharing and renting and sharing assets.

“Many leading peer-to-peer sites take a proactive approach to checking the identity of their sharers and participants whilst others adopt a more ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘buyer beware’ approach,” said HooYu marketing director, David Pope. “Unsurprisingly, it’s those that offer a well-lit marketplace where participants can trust and transact in confidence that will grow quickest and succeed. HooYu’s ID confirmation technology enables sharing platforms to attract new customers by giving them the confidence to transact and share with another person on the other side of the world.”

HooYu offers a global identity verification platform that enables businesses to authenticate customer identity, and help consumers who want to confirm another individual’s identity.

Users are asked to take take a selfie, share their online identity (Facebook or LinkedIn) and finally take a photo of their driving licence, ID card or passport.

HooYu then completes a biometric facial verification, extracts and scores identity data from the user’s online identity and ID documents and also authenticates their ID documents, delivering a report to both parties without sharing any private data..

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face photo  |  facial recognition  |  HooYu  |  identity verification  |  market report  |  secure transactions