AirBnB struck a goldmine in apartments cos it's pretty hard to 'steal' an apartment and take it away or damage it beyond all repair through normal expected use. I would gather most places are 'uninsured' for the duration of the sublease because the normal conditions have been broken but owners feel that that is a risk worth taking on for the expected return.
Cars that sit around are a different story - I feel for these guys http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/01/luxury-car-sharing-service-... but the truth of the matter is that with the next tier of high value illiquid stuff below apartments such as luxury cars and boats the perceived risk of letting somebody 'borrow' it is much higher. It is entirely feasible that whatever you're leasing out could get destroyed/sunk/totaled/stolen in normal use for its intended purpose. To provide such a market you would have to provide the insurance that goes with it and that's the hard bit.
This is why zipcar et al has stitched up the lower end of the car market. The car is 'common property' and they have the insurance to cover all who drive it.
Not saying it shouldn't be done - I'd actually love to build AirBnB for boats cos I sail but I can't afford my own boat or the charter prices being asked.
There's also the issue of liability and risk to the user. A poorly maintained car might be dangerous to drive and difficult to recognize.
There may be potential for this sort of humanization in other areas where the perceived risk of a transaction currently outweighs the benefit. One way to think about it may be to consider things that you borrow from a friend. Airbnb covers the sleep on a friend's couch/spare bed niche quite well.
Some interesting things I can think of... perhaps using space on a more granular level such as holding a meeting in a conference room or watching a movie on a home theater system. Things like renting parking spaces might be interesting as well in some areas where parking is very limited.
Whitman served as president and chief executive officer of eBay from 1998 to 2008. During her ten years with the company, she oversaw expansion from 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue.
Doesn't seem too bad. Not trolling or anything but why do you think she is so bad?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/undoing-meg-whitman...
Third cause successes can hide failures rather well. Companies can succeed despite their absolutely atrocious leadership - not because of it.
Both she and Carly Fiorina were two of the worst things that could've happened to eBay and HP respectively (Meg Whitman for both).
They are nasty pieces of work.
Balmer is another example - he is single-handedly going to destroy a $200 billion dollar corporation and no one is stopping him. Hell they'd save a lot of money by making me CEO :D.
Whitman led eBay to incredible valuations (6x from 1998 IPO to 2005), until the bizarre Skype flop, and as the MS buyout showed, Skype was run by some very clever crooks.
I wouldn't be surprised if they surpassed eBay within the decade in terms of net profit. Next up on the liquid market list should be cars.
Any other markets out there that need liquidity? Goods that aren't used or assets that lay dormant? I'm all ears.