The Ubers of babysitting

The transformation of the Internet into a collaborative environment has given rise to the sharing economy, allowing users to connect not only with friends, but also to interact with strangers. The sharing economy enables its users to exchange services and goods among one another in a quick and easy manner. Nonetheless, due to the fact that such services function based on relationships established online, their creators need to provide tools, which would facilitate trust between users. This thesis delves into the theory concerning trust on online platforms and expands it by means of qualitative interviews with users of peer-to-peer services connecting babysitters and parents. The qualitative approach reveals that the respondents’ answers vary depending on their personal needs for babysitting or au pairing, but all respondents are aware that the platforms are a means of connecting peers to one another and allowing them to communicate without much interference. Despite the fact that most of the background checking necessary to increase trust towards strangers met online is done by the users themselves, they still trust the platform and view it as very practical. The study reveals that babysitting and au pairing platforms are not very sustainable, as the users only use them when they are under pressure to find a caretaker for their child or when their current babysitter is not available anymore. Therefore, the users play a passive role on these websites most of the time. The research reveals that although the peer-to-peer babysitting platforms are helpful, they could not establish trust between the users on their own, as the most important element of building trust between strangers is interaction on other media, via video call and in an offline environment.