The 2 floor of Embarcadero business center, located in Financial Street, San Francisco, is full of 3 stories: WeWork's joint office community: Mobile areas and offices with different areas, cafes, billiards and other leisure areas. Through the window of the conference room, you can see the San Francisco Bay not far away.
In the Gulf of San Francisco alone, WeWork has 15 office spaces. As the founder of the shared economic joint office, WeWork has more than more than 170 office spaces and 160 thousand users in 19 countries around the world. In July this year, WeWork joined Hirotake investment and Softbank group to set up "China WeWork" to accelerate the expansion of the Chinese market.
WeWork Jon Slavet, the general manager of the west coast of the US, accepts the interview with the Nanfang Daily. He has confidence in the Chinese market. "WeWork was first born in New York, and then captured the west coast of the US. Now it is covering more countries and cities. In the future, China is likely to become the WeWork's largest market in the world. "
Strive to create a global innovator community
The idea of "sharing office space" was not considered by the traditional real estate developers at the beginning of the business.
In 2008, Adam Neuman, the founder of WeWork, also operated a company in an industrial building in Broolyn, New York, USA. In order to save money, he sublets the corner of the office to architect Miguel Makevi. Soon after, they put forward the idea of "joint office" to the owners of the building, but they were rejected without mercy.
Two years later, new Iman and Makevi opened the first WeWork office in the Soho District of New York. In the recovery stage after the financial crisis, many enterprises have moved out of expensive office buildings, and the joint office of high cost performance is beginning to bud. Then, WeWork entered the West Bank of the United States and went to the world.
The business mode of WeWork looks very simple: it will lease the whole office floor space from the landlord or property for a long time, and it will be partitioned into smaller space after being renovated and released. However, it is not only the core competitiveness of the whole retail selling".
"Just brush the membership card, you can get in and out of any WeWork joint office point in the world, don't worry about broadband, printer and other problems." A freelance writer who registered WeWork said.
For start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises, WeWork has a relatively low price and flexible space combination. When the company's business is growing and needs more office space, WeWork can adjust its satisfaction in time. In the WeWork China area stores in Shanghai, just 1 months, no member enterprises retail companies "scarlet convenience" from the 150 desk when settled, the rapid expansion of Cloud Road, a total of 500 stores in 3 and a half piece of work table size.
In addition, WeWork also provides diversified online business services for enterprises, including 22 major categories: financial management, brand strategy, legal service, marketing and mobile development. "We are trying to build a global business network and a global innovator community, providing office space as only one aspect." Jon Slavet, for example.
Plan to enter Guangzhou Shenzhen and other cities next year
In 2016, WeWork for the first time in Asia, the first station in Shanghai China, opened its first store in Yanping road. 1 years later, WeWork expanded to three cities in Beijing, Shanghai and Hongkong, operating 9 office spaces and having 3000 members. According to disclosure, in 2018 WeWork will be in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou and other cities to set up office space.
In July this year, WeWork joined Hirotake investment and Softbank group to announce the establishment of "China WeWork". 1 months later, WeWork announced the highest round of financing in the history, investing $4 billion 400 million by the soft silver group and its Vision Fund, with a valuation of $20 billion. Among them, 1 billion 400 million dollars will be used in the three branches of WeWork -- China WeWork, Japan WeWork and WeWork Pacific. We can see that WeWork is determined to expand in Asia.
In addition to the Chinese market, WeWork actively promotes local operation. 1 years in China, WeWork's big business members in China are growing. Data show that this year 3 - August of the new members, members of large enterprises accounted for 25% of the number of new members, including the small yellow car, ofo car, Boston Xiaopeng consulting companies.
With the successful promotion of the service of large enterprise members, the speed of development and the rate of entry of WeWork in China have reached a new high. At present, the average admission rate of office space in Beijing, Shanghai and Hongkong has reached more than 90%.
According to Jon Slavet, from the global statistical data, compared to traditional office buildings, large enterprises in WeWork can reduce the cost of 20% - 30%. "In the US, we have nearly 6 years to win the trust and accession of the members of large enterprises. In China, this time is shortened to 10 months, becoming the fastest growing market for big business members."
Non "competition in the same platform" with local enterprises
Like the giants that have entered the Chinese market, WeWork is facing not only the challenge of localization, but also the competition from Chinese enterprises. "Sharing joint office economy" outlet, attracted including SOHO3Q, Hugo and several companies flocking factory.
Jon Slavet believes that China's real estate is a very large market for local enterprises, and all kinds of enterprises have broad space for development. "We don't think that we are competing with these local companies in the same platform," he said directly. "WeWork is a United Office Township company."
Jon Slavet said that WeWork has a core advantage to truly bring Chinese users to the global office community network.
