Better to barter [News]

Better to barter By Grace Chua, The Straits Times, 8 Oct 2011. Instead of buying toys for her daughter, a housewife rents them. A Singaporean tutor learnt to drive in the United States by swopping his computer-repair skills for lessons. And a young couple who traded his Hindi for her Mandarin even hit it off and tied the knot. A new breed of consumers is renting, sharing, swopping and bartering, and a growing number of start-ups are popping up to meet their needs. While such 'collaborative consumption' has been around for years, technology is playing a bigger role than before. Click here to read the full story.