WeWork Deepens its Local Commitment as it Celebrates Fourth Anniversary in Greater China
WeWork celebrates its fourth anniversary in Greater China. It has deepened its local commitment to supporting members and partners to navigate the future of the workplace under the new normal. Since 2016, when WeWork entered the Greater China market, the company has been committed to implementing its localization strategy, providing members with safe, flexible, and efficient space solutions to empower their growth and transformation. Over the last four years, WeWork has also been collaborating with various partners to jointly unlock the possibilities of the future of work, helping local businesses to go global and vice versa.
“WeWork has established an extensive footprint in Greater China over the past four years and has led the new ways of working through our localized, flexible workplace solutions,” said Alan Ai, General Manager, WeWork Greater China. “We are grateful to our members, partners and government’s support for making this unique WeWork community a success. Leveraging the strong foundation we have established to connect talents at WeWork communities, facilitate collaborations, drive innovation and increase productivity and efficiency, WeWork strives to transform the way we work in our fourth year in the Greater China market. This is especially true during this unprecedented time when people look for connection and a sense of community. We look forward to collaborating with our local members, partners and the government to build the future of the workplace that stays true to WeWork’s mission and values.”
Steady development of the WeWork community to support growth of the new economy
Over the past four years, WeWork has accelerated its development in the region. Through its communities, WeWork empowers local industries, including innovation, technology, finance, and e-commerce. It has implemented strategies for talent development to fuel economic development. This underscores the company’s long-term commitment to the Greater China market.
Savills, the global real estate services provider, selected WeWork as its workspace partner of choice in Suzhou. Savills’ spokesperson recognized WeWork’s impact in creating a sense of community and offering unique services, noting that, “The WeWork community has a superior geographical location and an engaging environment for our team with higher cost efficiency and flexibility. Through WeWork, we have the opportunity to connect with members in different communities and cities, creating a powerful synergy through innovative collaboration.”
Empowering members to grow and create value through digital technologies
Members are always at the heart of WeWork’s business. As the world’s leading flexible office space provider, WeWork understands the changing demand for office space and provides members of all sizes and from various sectors with flexible and efficient space solutions to further develop their business. For enterprise members and their special space needs, WeWork delivers customized space solutions that enrich their corporate culture, nurture innovations, and strengthen collaborations that unleash the full potential of employees.
Leading financial services platform GoBear shared their views on the values that WeWork offers to its members. “As one of the first members of the WeWork Hong Kong community, we are glad to have grown together with WeWork since 2016, recording over 60% growth in our team size in just four years’ time,” said Iris Tse, Managing Director of GoBear Hong Kong. “Leveraging the support from the WeWork Community Team, including marketing and networking opportunities for us to promote our products and expand our business, we are able to reach more potential customers and improve their financial health. Over the years, WeWork has redefined the workplace for the GoBear team. We enjoyed the events, meeting facilities, as well as the dynamic, flexible and innovative environment, which enhanced our productivity and creativity.”
Under the new work normal, WeWork’s value proposition is stronger now than it’s ever been. Flexibility is at the core of what WeWork does — and it’s never mattered more. WeWork envisions the future of the workplace by recognizing that while physical distancing may be part of the new normal, collaboration, human connection and the sense of community will remain more important than ever. As such, WeWork has increased sanitization, prioritizing personal space and implementing behavioral signage to ensure that members can continue to work in safe and clean environments.
Moreover, WeWork’s network helps companies to adopt a hub-and-spoke model in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. To reduce commutes for employees, company footprints will need to be dispersed, with office locations spread across cities to meet people closer to home. Based on this model, companies and organizations have a centralized “hub” office with dispersed “spoke” offices across the city in neighborhoods where employees live.
Over the past few months, WeWork has witnessed member growth amid the COVID-19 outbreak, specifically in areas such as internet, ecommerce, live broadcasting, education, blockchain and big data. WeWork’s flexible workplace solution addresses these members’ needs to accommodate urgent workspace expansion.
At the same time, WeWork is fully leveraging its technology advantages in digitization to continuously create value for its members. Based on leading building information modeling (BIM) technology, WeWork is able to provide holistic real estate services from location searches, design and decoration, to operations and upgrades, saving members time and human resources. During the COVID-19 period, VR tours bring WeWork’s real-world spaces online to provide members with comprehensive information and an immersive experience.
Strategic local partnerships to promote the development of different industries
During the company’s four years in the Greater China market, WeWork has launched diversified and in-depth cooperation with members, landlords, universities, associations, and local communities, to explore the possibilities of future workspaces.
Facing the wave of urban renewal, WeWork, is working with landlords to actively develop a diversified, efficient and localized mode of cooperation. The goal is to inject vitality into historic landmark buildings to create value for members across the entire ecosystem. Through functional renovations of shopping malls and office building projects, WeWork and landlords have jointly developed an all-new approach to asset value optimization. As such, these projects have established an eco-environment model for redevelopment of existing commercial buildings and office space.
Looking forward, WeWork will remain true to its values and mission in supporting members to navigate the future of the workplace, as well as continuing to implement its localization strategy, expand cooperation with local partners, and provide flexible space solutions. This enables members to capture business opportunities in the era of new work normal.
