I think another fundamental difference between cleaning and cab rides is that with cab rides you're essentially buying a different product each time (because you are going to/from different points) so the value of a marketplace is much higher. With cleaning services, you're buying the same product again and again (same house, same procedure, etc.) so the marketplace is just a useless middleman.
this is interesting, and I overlooked it completely but it is fundamentally important. Uber, Lyft and AirBnB are probably the best known sharing economy companies. While you could make the point that each house homejoy cleans is different, and to the worker they go to different locations, but to the user this is a service commodity.
While, like apples or coffee vary in quality, if they are at a certain bar it doesn't matter. To a user a clean house is pretty similar so really the only thing that matters is how I value cleanliness. I can even do it myself in a pinch. So the reputation almost has no value for a commodity product.
You either trust homejoy/homeaglow or you trust someone else, but the result is nearly the same and managing this is not complex because you need almost the same thing everytime. So if you independently find someone to do it, you can just have them do the same thing repeatedly.
Ride and homesharing provide the same service in different places and contexts and they provide the complex coordination of scheduling and market making on the fly. Diverting a moving vehicle to pick up a person in a different location than their last ride and bringing them to a location they have never been before.
Airbnb provides people with different schedules to coordinate buying and selling space in differing locations with a degree of trust and efficiency. You get a different product from airbnb every time.
Homejoy does not provide a distinct service from either the market, or itself.
really good point.
not sure what the service equivalent of a commodity is.
