Don't let that Prada handbag, your camera and the rollerblades you never use gather dust in your closet. Put them to work on the rental market.
A growing breed of online marketplaces offering to rent everything from baby prams to bulldozers have seen a boom in business as the credit crunch bites from consumers and companies discovering the rental market can save and make you money.
Online rental marketplaces provide an internet platform for individuals and hire companies to rent out their wares - like a rental version of eBay.
Gary Cige, 28, co-founder of Zilok (uk.zilok.com), says individuals are renting out more and more of their personal belongings to earn pocket money.
A Paris-based member of his website has rented his single lens reflex camera out several times, earning around €800 in nine months. Another member has made around €600 in three to four months by renting his camera, roller blades and game console. Cige says the website has been growing around 25 per cent a month since it was founded one year ago, and he thinks the credit crisis will likely boost growth.
"People have difficulties making ends meet at the end of the month, they try to find ways to save money and to earn a little more," he said.
Items available for rent on Zilok include dog costumes, a candy floss maker and an inflatable castle.
Zilok, who has taught macroeconomics at university, believes that the success of online rental marketplaces is symptomatic of a general shift of society away from valuing ownership towards valuing usage. Other examples of this shift were the "velib" bike hire scheme launched in Paris and the car-sharing networks now in place worldwide.
Such schemes enable people to be more ecological, by providing monetary motivation, he said.
Dominique Bourg, a French philosopher who has written about the so-called economy of functionality, told Reuters:
"It costs a lot less to rent an object you do not intend to use much than to buy it. And if you own that object you can also earn money by renting it out. So there is a double advantage, both for the person who owns and for the person who doesn't."
Sarah Marsh, Reuters
A growing breed of online marketplaces offering to rent everything from baby prams to bulldozers has seen a boom in business as the credit crunch bites.
A growing breed of online marketplaces offering to rent everything from baby prams to bulldozers have seen a boom in business as the credit crunch bites from consumers and companies discovering the rental market can save and make you money.
Online rental marketplaces provide an internet platform for individuals and hire companies to rent out their wares - like a rental version of eBay.
Gary Cige, 28, co-founder of Zilok (uk.zilok.com), says individuals are renting out more and more of their personal belongings to earn pocket money.
A Paris-based member of his website has rented his single lens reflex camera out several times, earning around €800 in nine months. Another member has made around €600 in three to four months by renting his camera, roller blades and game console. Cige says the website has been growing around 25 per cent a month since it was founded one year ago, and he thinks the credit crisis will likely boost growth.
"People have difficulties making ends meet at the end of the month, they try to find ways to save money and to earn a little more," he said.
Items available for rent on Zilok include dog costumes, a candy floss maker and an inflatable castle.
Zilok, who has taught macroeconomics at university, believes that the success of online rental marketplaces is symptomatic of a general shift of society away from valuing ownership towards valuing usage. Other examples of this shift were the "velib" bike hire scheme launched in Paris and the car-sharing networks now in place worldwide.
Such schemes enable people to be more ecological, by providing monetary motivation, he said.
Dominique Bourg, a French philosopher who has written about the so-called economy of functionality, told Reuters:
"It costs a lot less to rent an object you do not intend to use much than to buy it. And if you own that object you can also earn money by renting it out. So there is a double advantage, both for the person who owns and for the person who doesn't."
Sarah Marsh, Reuters
A growing breed of online marketplaces offering to rent everything from baby prams to bulldozers has seen a boom in business as the credit crunch bites.