Navigating by the Stars: Current Challenges for Ensuring Trust in the Sharing Economy

Today, virtually all e-commerce and sharing-economy platforms rely on star ratings or similar systems to build trust between anonymous buyers and sellers. However, star ratings can be quite tricky as a navigation aid. Platforms and users face several challenges in making sure that reputation systems remain credible. Skewed ratings and low rating variance, however, make it difficult for users to differentiate good from bad products and services. To tackle the issue of retaliation, most platforms use so-called simultaneous review schemes, only publishing ratings once both parties have committed. Furthermore, platforms may offer individuals the opportunity to leave text reviews as a complement to numeric ratings. A growing number of platforms also use complex technical systems and algorithms to automatically identify, mark or delete fake news. To maintain legitimacy, platform operators need to design reputation systems with minimal negative side effects and make crucial decisions about the level of control they seek to enact.