7 out of 10 Seoul Citizens Say "Sharing Activities Are Necessary Even in the COVID Era"

Awareness of Seoul's Sharing Policies: Ddareungi > Public Wi-Fi > Public Facility Access
56% Agree with the 3rd Phase Policy Encouraging Citizen-Led Urban Resource Sharing

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Although non-face-to-face and contactless methods have become commonplace due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it was found that 7 out of 10 Seoul citizens still believe that 'sharing activities' are necessary. More than half of the citizens agreed with the expanded concept of a sharing city policy that encourages citizens to actively participate in sharing urban resources.

Seoul City announced on the 11th the results of the '2020 Perception Survey to Discover Policy Demand for Sharing City,' conducted by Hyundai Research Institute from December 4 to 14 last year, surveying 4,000 citizens.

First, despite concerns about 'sharing activities' after the spread of COVID-19, 70.3% of Seoul citizens responded that resource sharing is 'necessary.' The most common reason was 'to save resources that are unnecessarily wasted,' at 39.1%, followed by 'reducing environmental pollution (28.3%),' 'cost reduction (21.0%),' and 'community revitalization (9.0%).'

Regarding experience with sharing services, 77.9% answered 'yes,' among which experience with 'public institution sharing projects' was the highest at 73.3% (multiple responses allowed). Meanwhile, 'private sharing services' accounted for 43.2%, and experiences with 'voluntary sharing activities' such as free sharing or volunteering also exceeded 40%.

The most recognized active sharing project in Seoul by citizens was 'Ddareungi (Seoul Public Bike)' at 77.8%, followed by 'Public Wi-Fi Seoul (64.7%),' 'Public Facility Opening (44.2%),' and 'Parking Lot Sharing (42.0%).' Regarding Seoul's 'Sharing City' policy, 78.2% of citizens were aware of it, and evaluations of the policy's performance showed that 'high (25.5%)' was about 5 percentage points higher than 'low (20.6%),' but the most common response was 'average' at 53.9%.

Regarding the direction of the '3rd Sharing City' policy, which Seoul City is promoting from this year by expanding the concept of sharing beyond business-based resource sharing to a method where citizens actively participate in sharing urban resources, 56.0% of citizens agreed. Among the 3rd policy tasks, the highest response rate for necessity was 'planning and developing citizen-participatory sharing activities (87.3%),' followed by 'developing public-private cooperative sharing technologies and services (85.6%),' 'creating jobs related to sharing activities (84.9%),' and 'investigating shared resources within the region and managing them by local residents (84.6%).'

When asked about their willingness to share personally owned items as part of active participation in sharing, 77.2% responded affirmatively. The most commonly shared items were 'books (66.7%),' followed by 'household tools (34.6%),' 'exercise equipment (32.8%),' 'hobby tools (31.7%),' and 'small to medium-sized home appliances (31.3%).'

Jeong Seon-ae, Seoul City's Innovation Planning Officer, said, "Despite COVID-19, citizens still recognize the necessity of sharing activities and hope that the policy direction will shift to a method where citizens actively participate. Considering this, we will strive to implement a new 3rd sharing policy suitable for the COVID era."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.