When Uber drivers don't own cars: Developing world tests 'sharing economy'

Marvin used to have a job. A real job. The kind that came with health insurance and paid days off and lunch breaks. He earned about $250 a week – a small fortune in South Africa, where more than 50 percent of the population lives on less than $80 per person per month and two-thirds of young people are unemployed.

But when his contract with a Johannesburg logistics company ended last year, he couldn’t find anything to replace it – until a friend told him about the ride-sharing app Uber.

“It seemed like the easiest thing for me. You don’t need a degree, you don’t need a CV, you just sign up and go,” he says.

Stop there, and Marvin is practically the application’s poster-child, creating a job for himself in an economy that seemed determined to lock him out.