The Rise of the "Time Economy"
From a Commodity to a Tradable Asset
By Jane Stevens
Time is the great equalizer. Whether you are a billionaire CEO, a nurse working a night shift, or a student pulling an all-nighter, every human being gets exactly 24 hours in a day, no more and no less. For centuries, this fact has structured how we work, live, and measure productivity. But in today’s hyper-connected and technology-driven world, this age-old framework is shifting.
No longer just a finite resource to manage, time is transforming into something far more complex, a measurable, monetizable, and even tradable asset. Welcome to the rise of the Time Economy, an emerging paradigm that could redefine how we value work, leisure, and human potential.
From Clock-In to Value Creation
The industrial era introduced the time-for-money model, where the longer you worked, the more you earned. This was the world of factory shifts, billable hours, and the 9-to-5 routine, where productivity was measured by the clock, not by results.That system built modern capitalism but now feels increasingly obsolete. Automation and artificial intelligence have unshackled productivity from human labor hours. A machine can produce in seconds what a worker once took days to accomplish.
Today, value is less about time spent and more about outcomes achieved. A dentist is paid for delivering a healthy smile, not the 30 minutes spent cleaning teeth. A corporate lawyer is valued for a watertight contract, not the hours logged drafting it. This distinction underpins what many experts call the value economy, where compensation aligns with results rather than with clock time. The growth of freelancing, gig work, and project-based contracts all highlight this shift.
“We are witnessing a separation of ‘time worked’ from ‘value created.’ It is no longer about labor hours, it is about knowledge, creativity, and leverage.”
Time as a Tradable Asset
What makes the emerging time economy so radical is that time itself is becoming tradable, almost like a currency. Blockchain technology has enabled new experiments in tokenization, with startups exploring the concept of “time tokens.” Imagine a developer offering ten hours of coding as a digital token, which could then be purchased, traded, and redeemed. This creates a liquid market for specialized human capital, bypassing traditional corporate gatekeeping.
Gig platforms epitomize this same principle, with ride-hailing drivers, delivery workers, and freelancers selling small increments of their time. By breaking time into smaller tradable units, individuals become entrepreneurs of their own hours, piecing together income streams from multiple sources. In the Arab world, particularly in the UAE, this trend is highly visible.
Platforms such as Nabbesh and Ureed have become pioneers in the freelance marketplace, helping writers, developers, designers, and translators sell their time and expertise flexibly. These digital marketplaces connect talent from across the MENA region with businesses seeking specialized skills, often on a project-by-project basis.
Delivery platforms are another vivid example. Companies like Talabat, Careem NOW, Zomato UAE, and Deliveroo thrive on the micro-transaction model. Riders earn by the minute or hour, monetizing short bursts of labor while giving customers back time they would otherwise spend shopping or cooking. Talabat alone employs tens of thousands of riders across the GCC and processes millions of transactions every month, effectively turning convenience into one of the most valuable currencies of the modern Middle Eastern city.
Meanwhile, the Careem story has become emblematic of how regional innovation reshaped the time economy. Launched in 2012 as a ride-hailing platform, Careem quickly grew into a “super app,” adding food delivery, digital payments, and courier services. By 2019, Uber acquired Careem for 3.1 billion dollars, marking one of the largest tech exits in the Middle East. At its core, Careem was not simply a transport company, it was a time-optimization platform, helping millions reclaim hours otherwise lost in commuting and errands.
Global and Regional Perspectives
The time economy is not a regional trend but a global phenomenon. Experts across industries are weighing in on its implications.
Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, emphasizes that the future of productivity is not in managing time but in how we direct our energy. He explains that the key question is not whether we have time for a task, but whether it is the best use of our attention and creativity.
In the world of finance, time is equated with risk. The U.S. shift from a two-day to a one-day settlement cycle is an acknowledgment that shorter time frames reduce volatility. SEC Chair Gary Gensler summarized it by saying, “Time is money and time is risk.” BlackRock’s Larry Fink has gone further, stressing that companies must view time as capital to be invested wisely in innovation and strategy.
From a social perspective, the paradox is striking. Sociologist Judy Wajcman has written extensively about how technology, while designed to save time, often leaves people feeling more rushed. A recent Gallup poll found nearly half of American workers report feeling burned out very often or always. Wajcman suggests that convenience technologies encourage us to cram more into our days, often eliminating the very leisure they promised to create.
The Gulf is responding in its own way. The UAE introduced new labor laws in 2022 to support flexible, part-time, and remote working arrangements. Dubai’s Virtual Work Program allows international professionals to relocate to the emirate while working remotely for overseas employers, turning time and geography into borderless assets. Saudi Arabia, through Vision 2030, is actively promoting gig and freelance platforms as tools for youth empowerment, while Bahrain is becoming a hub for fintech startups that help individuals manage their time and money more effectively.
“Time-saving technologies often create pressure to do even more, erasing the very leisure they promise to deliver.”
A Data-Driven Look at Time
The numbers underscore the transformation. The global gig economy, valued at 402 billion dollars in 2023, is expected to reach more than 1.6 trillion by 2027. That growth reflects a shift where individual time and skills are monetized in increasingly smaller and flexible chunks.
At the same time, people are spending vast amounts of leisure time on devices. The average person now spends over three hours each day on their smartphone, much of it on non-productive activity. This has fueled the rise of the so-called attention economy, in which companies like TikTok and Netflix compete not for money, but for hours of human focus.
Automation further complicates this picture. McKinsey has projected that by 2030, automation could displace as much as 30 percent of hours worked globally. While this frees up time for higher-value work, it also demands large-scale reskilling efforts to prevent unemployment.
In the GCC, the numbers are equally striking. A recent report by PwC Middle East estimated that the digital gig economy could contribute up to 10 billion dollars annually to regional GDP by 2030. The food delivery sector in the UAE alone is worth billions of dirhams, with apps like Talabat and Deliveroo becoming staples of daily life. In Saudi Arabia, freelance platforms are seeing exponential growth, with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development recording over 2 million registered freelancers by 2022.
These figures highlight that the GCC is not just catching up to the time economy, it is becoming one of its most dynamic laboratories.
The Future of the Time Economy
The time economy holds both promise and peril. On the one hand, it democratizes wealth creation by enabling people to monetize unique skills on their own terms. It also improves productivity by freeing humans from repetitive tasks and offers unprecedented personal autonomy through flexible work.
On the other hand, inequalities could widen if only the wealthy can buy back time through outsourcing and convenience, while those with fewer resources remain trapped in overwork. The constant pressure to monetize every moment risks eroding leisure, mental health, and human connection. Ethical dilemmas around tokenizing human time also demand careful consideration.
Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness, offers a cautionary reminder. “If every moment of life is monetized, we risk losing sight of the very purpose of time, to live meaningfully.”
Rethinking Our Relationship with Time
The rise of the time economy forces us to confront difficult questions. Should time primarily be treated as a tradable market asset, or should it remain a personal and sacred resource? What should societies do with the “extra” time automation creates? Should it be redistributed as leisure or reinvested into further work? And how do we protect relationships and rest in a culture that increasingly rewards constant productivity?
In the Arab world, experiments are already underway. Trials of shorter workweeks and the adoption of hybrid work policies in UAE companies show a willingness to rethink rigid schedules. The country’s ambition to become a global hub for digital nomads reflects a future where time, talent, and location flow seamlessly across borders. Saudi Arabia’s reforms, coupled with a surge in freelancing registrations, suggest that the GCC could lead the way in redefining the future of flexible labor.
The rise of the time economy is one of the most profound shifts of our era. Time is no longer merely a constraint or an hourly wage unit, it is becoming a tradable, investable, and highly valuable asset.
Whether through blockchain tokens, gig work, or AI-driven automation, we are entering an age where every second holds economic weight. The real challenge, however, is not technological but philosophical.
Do we use this newfound flexibility to enrich life, or do we succumb to relentless efficiency and burnout? The answer will define not just how we work, but how we live.
Time is not just money. Time is everything.