Sharing is caring, in China

While London has bike rental, handbag lovers in China can now rent handbags including brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Dior, using the mobile messenger app WeChat.

Chanel bags [Photo: sohu.com]

Users can be expected to pay a small amount to rent the bag, and then around 50% of the market price of the bag as a deposit.

But this system has been in the UK for a while, online shoppers can subscribe to nag rental websites and rent their favorite Céline, Louis Vuitton, Hermès or Chanel bag for a monthly fee of £149.

Rui Rapazote, Uncloset’s co-founder, told the UK press: “We created Uncloset because we wanted to provide a way for women to enjoy luxury handbags without having to buy one ever again. The fashion industry has progressed to an unsustainable point where the market struggles to keep up with soaring luxury prices and a faster rotation of trends and must-have pieces.

"On the opposite end of the scale is fast, but low quality, 'throwaway fashion' which we believe to be inefficient and wasteful."

Across the UK, it’s estimated women spend £1.5billion a year on handbags.

Dou Baobao founder Cheng Kaiwen told Securities Daily that his business model has "economic and environmental" benefits, and said that such services could help Chinese users distinguish between fake and real goods in an increasingly saturated market.

But it's not just bags and bikes you can rent or share, China has a booming market in sharing, there are at least two umbrella share services that have popped up in China in recent months, Molisan and Hujie Web. Shanghai-based startup Molisan has already begun trial runs in Guangzhou and Fuzhou.