Dice octopus in sheep’s clothing
The app is owned by Olio Exchange Limited, based in London, England. First of all: The app collects data – and not very briefly: first and last name, address, email address, telephone number, profile picture, location – pretty much every conceivable piece of personal data. If you want to use the app fully and as intended, you have to accept this. Users should be aware of this. “olio” also makes this clear in its data protection declaration: If you do not agree to this, you should not create an account. They state at one point that they will never pass on data to third parties. But reading the data protection declaration is a little different. Third-party providers such as Facebook, Google and Amazon certainly have access to this data via their cookies and services. “olio” never tires of emphasizing that it is not responsible for the data processing of third-party providers. We also find the statement that personal data is stored on servers in the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA) or the USA a bit vague. Overall, the data protection declaration is actually very detailed, although the app turns out to be a real data octopus. Anyone interested should be aware of this.
Become part of the community
To enter the marketplace, you must register with the app. Before registering, you must agree to the community rules. Here you can already see that the developers do not want to keep their platform exclusive, but still free from troublemakers. Anyone who wants to join the “Olio-er” community must overcome the registration hurdle. This requires you to provide an email address. In addition, the app requires location access because its concept is based on location. This allows “Olio-er” to appear nearby. After the registration process, users are presented with two options. In addition to the free Basic option, there is also a paid “Supporter” plan. This is advertised by saying that no advertising is displayed, that you can see what is on offer directly on the map and that you have a “Special Supporter Profile” – probably more of a symbolic aspect. If the benefits are worth the money to you, you can choose between a monthly charge of €2.99 or an annual debit with a 50% saving (€17.99). It’s a little confusing that pounds and euros are sometimes displayed mixed up here – the app can’t at any point hide the market it’s designed for.
Share – but with whom?
The app is divided into four tabs. The first page is the feed in which nearby offers should be displayed – at least in theory. Because although there are supposedly at least 18 “Olio-ers” in our area, nothing was displayed in the category “Food” or “Non-food”. We cannot verify whether the number is correct. We suspect that the number of nearby members is more of an attraction so that new users do not lose motivation immediately. One can hardly speak of active members here. Perhaps one thing leads to the other: where there are few users, little is offered; where little is offered, no new users are added.
While food can only be donated here, other items can also be sold, borrowed or searched for in addition to being donated. In the other filter options, there is the option to only display food or things that have been personally posted or posted by volunteers. You can also voluntarily register as a so-called “Food Waste Hero” to save leftover food and dispose of it. As a reward, you can keep 10% of the food for yourself. What seems a bit strange about the filter options is that you can also display things that are no longer available – we wonder why. Otherwise, there are filter functions familiar from other local market apps, such as maximum distance, sorting by “newest” or “nearest” first. You can also set your own location here if you want to search in your hometown or where you are currently located. However, we find the fact that nothing is offered, even in a large city, rather demotivating. After all, a community thrives on the participation of its members. But without members, this will be difficult. If you had the paid version, it would be very boring and disappointing. Unfortunately, changing the location didn’t work very well either. The overview of the items or food offered on the menu is reserved for the paid version.
Undeterred by this, people are motivated at various points to offer something themselves. In the “Add” tab you can offer food or items yourself. Here you can choose between donating, selling, borrowing and searching. To do this, you must provide some details, such as the possible collection period. A photo of the item being offered is also required. Without this we cannot go any further. Understandable – but this rules out the possibility of offering something on the go before you get home and then picking it up.
Unlike the offers, the app’s “community” area is not limited to a specific location. Active participation in the forum shows that the app is very well received in its home country and that the concept is working. The forum serves as a place to exchange topics related to the app, but also beyond (e.g. recipes), with much of it relating to the more technical aspects of using the app.
More than a sharing app
“Olio” wants to be more than just a sharing app, but also wants to change behaviors. There is a tab for this called “Goals”. Goals are, so to speak, targets or challenges for more sustainable behavior in everyday life. One example: the “Eat me!” shelf against food waste. Here you are asked to sort the soon-to-be-consumed foods on a shelf in order of their expiration date, so that you can literally keep an eye on them. By swiping left or right, you can scroll through additional goals and select the ones that appeal to you most. Other goals include flying less or buying organic meat. Recommendations are also made directly in the app about where you can buy or order. This could be a practical service for users, but it is not clear whether there are any advertising partnerships behind it. In its terms and conditions, “olio” states that the app definitely works with affiliate links. However, the profits are reinvested in the maintenance of the app. If you wish, you can add these goals to your to-do list and tick them off when you have achieved them. You can have a maximum of three goals on your to-do list before adding new ones. If you successfully complete a goal, “karma points” will be credited.
Olios Currency: Karma Points
The app works with karma points. The app awards karma points to the user if they have done something that is positive for the planet or helps build the community. How many karma points you earn depends on the type of action: you earn 30 to 50 points for donating, selling, borrowing and looking for things. For completing “goals” you earn 10 to 200 points and for a prize (“badge”) you can earn up to 500 points. These “badges” are usually available for fairly easy-to-implement actions, such as filling out your profile completely or offering food for the first time. The 30+ badges also include challenges that seem a bit out of context, such as “Night Owl” – offering food or another item between 9 pm and 4 am. Here we wonder what broader meaning this challenge is supposed to have. Probably just to keep the user happy. Because it is not clear to us how exactly “olio” weighs these karma points. “olio” provides an example calculation for offering food or items:
A bag of apples = 1
A pack of cookies = 1
One bottle of shampoo and one bottle of conditioner = 2
Three sandwiches = 3
We asked ourselves: Would you get three points if you gave away three apples separately instead of a bag of apples? And what exactly is the environmental impact? That remains a mystery to us. The more karma points you collect, the higher your level will be. You start with red and can work your way up to the rainbow level (50,000 karma points). It will probably take a long time to achieve this. A gamification approach clearly predominates here, which we generally consider good, but which is only partially accessible to us here.
Source: Screenshots
Conclusion
A community can only function if there are enough members who participate. In many places in the app you can tell that it comes from Great Britain and was designed for the British market. Therefore, we do not see a full use in Germany due to the lack of users. In addition to the function of offering things, we generally like the gamification approach for more sustainability in everyday life, which German users can at least use for themselves. In addition, the design of the app is modern and corresponds to user habits. However, we have to criticize that using the app costs a lot of personal data. Overall, it is a good concept, but it is not (yet) popular enough in Germany in the form of the “olio” app. If you want to share leftover food, it is better to use what it has to offer. foodsharing.de use. When it comes to tangible items, there are established offerings such as: next door. or Classifieds to improve.