PANGLAO, Philippines — Consumers themselves help crowdsourcing platforms improve their services by providing reviews.
Crowdsourcing platforms such as Airbnb and Uber are also being described as "reputation economies" where users rate each other.
"We'll find that the market will surface the best users or the best guests or the best hosts and that's how we will help provide the best possible experience," former Airbnb Head of Regional Marketing Pepe Torres said in the "Disruption of Industries" session of the Ocean Summit last week.
Torres noted that such platforms continue to innovate and provide better choices for the entire market.
"People rate and review each other. You figure out if this person's a bad user, a good guest or bad host and I think that's what we see as self-correcting over time just like people review restaurants," he said.
Despite getting ahead of the market, Torres noted that crowdsourcing platforms should not be threatened if the "incumbents" are catching up on innovation.
"That means it's better choices for the entire market. Everyone should be happier about that," he said.
He added that competitors might also be able to build on the strength of platforms that continue to innovate.
Airbnb is known to provide a cheaper accommodation alternative for travelers but has taken the next step in terms of its services, according to Torres.
The company has started to offer experience instead of accommodation through "Airbnb Trips."
"Instead of just participating in the usual ready-guided tours that everybody else does, it opens up an entire market for experiences that are much more unique," Torres said.
The Ocean Summit is a bi-annual gathering of the World Economic Forum community in the Philippines, where leaders across sectors connect and discover new ideas.