Winning a trophy for a group effort often comes with the question ‘who is going to keep it?’ Seldom one person is chosen as the ‘trophy-bearer’ and one strategy is to alternate possession of the trophy between all members of the group. The same sort of ownership-tension can exist when you purchase something that is used by a group or community, for example a microwave for your dormitory. Australia-based OwnMutually takes this concept and applies it to anything you can imagine where both initial investments and ownership are shared.

We’re in the early stages of the shared economy, and we will increasingly be exchanging goods and services instead of buying and owning them in the upcoming years. OwnMutually gives a new twist to this model by setting up a website to facilitate group purchases. Users can add items they would like to part-own and subsequently find people who want do this with them. With OwnMutually it is possible to buy things that were previously financially out of reach. Simply select the item, add some information about yourself and where you live, set a maximum number of “sharers”, and pick people from the network to share it with.

OwnMutually scans users’ social networks to find ‘sharers’ that are close by to keep the sharing realistic and manageable and with this creates the choice of sharing just with people you know or with strangers as well. All of a sudden the world seems to be in reach, so we cannot wait for the launch of OwnMutually. Luckily, the world of fractional ownership is near: OwnMutually is planning to launch their service in April.