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From bicycles to brollies, China’s flourishing sharing economy has a new entrant – capsule hotels for office workers looking for a place to snooze. White sleeping pods that look like they belong on a spacecraft can be hired for 10 yuan (USD 1.47) per 30 minutes during the lunchtime peak by scanning a barcode with your smartphone. The company behind the capsules – which also have recharge facilities, a fan and a reading light – is Beijing-based start-up Xiangshui Space. Chinese are embracing the sharing economy, from bike-sharing start-ups to smartphone power banks, umbrellas and more – all of which can be conveniently borrowed with the use of a phone. Some 600 million people used services created under the sharing economy last year, a market worth 3.45 trillion yuan (USD 508 billion) in 2016 – up 103 per cent on 2015, according to the State Council Information Office. Read original article |
