The housing platform for student accommodation: the case of HousingAnywhere.com

Abstract

The digital company HousingAnywhere was born in 2009 in Rotterdam. Throughout the years, the CEO Niels Van Deuren has been leading the company evolving and adapting the business model following the technological, economic and social changes. In 2017 HousingAnywhere is one of the main players in the housing platform market aiming to be the leader in its sector. The aim of my dissertation is to understand if HousingAnywhere has the potential to be a new star among the digital companies, deeply analysing all the aspects of its business model, market expansion strategy and its positioning in the housing market.

The work will be developed taking into account the evolution of the sharing economy during the years in order to better understand which have been the key driver’s change for HousingAnywhere. It will be used the e-business model framework for two-side platforms developed by Osterwalder in his ontology “An eBusiness model ontology for modeling eBusiness”. I had the chance to have easy access to data, information and market research because since February 2017 I have been working in the Supply Department of HousingAnywhere and I’m currently in charge to lead the Italian market. I will deeply analyse the processes, the activity configuration and the expansion business strategy using user and data analysis platforms. I will share the knowledge I have acquired during this year at HousingAnywhere, which is not just the experience I gained working in this inspiring environment, but also the one I got joining many start-up network events, housing conferences and seminars.

Thanks to its historical capability to be resilient, the entrepreneurial mind-set of the management team, the know-how acquired and the international network created over the years, I personally believe that HousingAnywhere can achieve the sky.