Top 5 Key Players companies in Prosumer
by Highest Patent Value in the United States in 2018

A prosumer is a person who consumes and produces a product. The term is derived from prosumption, a dot-com era business term meaning "production by consumers". These terms were coined in 1980 by American futurist Alvin Toffler, and were widely used by many technology writers of the time. The term has since come to refer to a person using commons-based peer production. Technological breakthrough has fastened the development of prosumption. With the help of additive manufacturing techniques, for example, co-creation takes place at different production stages: design, manufacturing and distribution stages. It also takes place between individual customers, leading to co-design communities. Similarly, mass customisation is often associated with the production of tailored goods or services on a large scale production. This increase in participation has flourished following the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 technologies, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. This rise in user participation blurs the line between production and consumption activities, with the consumer becoming a prosumer.