WeWork launches coworking space in Seoul

WeWork Meatpacking office in New York City / Courtesy of WeWork

• Published Sep 22, 2016 4:48 PM KST
• Updated Sep 22, 2016 4:48 PM KST

Introduces new work culture

By Yun Suh-young

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could work in 100 different nicely designed offices across 30 cities for only as low as $320 a month?

Well, with WeWork, that dream is now a possibility.

WeWork opened a coworking space in the busy southern district of Gangnam in Seoul on Aug. 1. The Gangnam office, which accommodates 1,000 and is next to the Gangnam subway station, is only the second in Asia after the Shanghai office, which opened in July. Early next year, a second Seoul office will open at Daeshin Finance Center in Myeongdong in the northern part of the city. The Myeongdong office is expected to be the largest WeWork branch in Asia, accommodating 3,000 people. WeWork offices are usually spacious, occupying up 10 floors of a building.

WeWork is a company that provides coworking spaces, that is, offices or workspaces that are shared and are available for a monthly fee. WeWork offers four options: the “hot desk” option, which allows you to occupy any available desk for 350,000 won (US$320) per month; the “designated desk” option, which provides you with a designated desk; a “private office” option, which provides you your own office; and a “member” option, which enables you to use the WeWork app to network with members around the world.

WeWork has 65,000 registered members at 100 offices in 30 cities. Their members come from various industries, ranging from PR, fashion, IT and consulting to finance and legal services. They include entrepreneurs, startups and big companies such as Facebook, IBM, Dell and Microsoft. Of the 65,000 members, 10,000 are enterprises.

The value of networking

WeWork leases workspaces to entrepreneurs and other individuals and provide them access to other necessary services and equipment related to running a business. But perhaps the most valuable aspect of WeWork’s plans is the connections members can make through their online and offline platforms.

The WeWork app connects its extensive network of members enabling them to chat, ask questions, seek workers and find jobs. This ability to connect with other members in a huge network is what makes WeWork stand out from other coworking spaces.

“We came here because of the synergies, the great people who work here and the location. Also, for me, the app is really important because it connects this center in Gangnam with all the WeWorks around the world. The app connects all 65,000 people over the world,” said Todd Sample, CEO of Sample & Park Consulting.

“This kind of center is really what you make of it. If you just need an office, there are lots of offices in Seoul. But you can take advantage of the potential synergies which are located not just throughout WeWork through the app, but also in this building.

“If we have a business trip to New York, Washington, Hong Kong or Shanghai, then we can also reserve conference rooms there as well.”

At WeWork’s offices across the world, members meet new clients, find business partners and collaborate with other creative and entrepreneurial people.

“We moved here on the opening day on Aug. 1, and it has been wonderful ever since. We raised money here, we’ve met customers here and we hosted marketing events, sharing tips on video marketing. We met not only one, but many customers through WeWork and through our seminars here,” said David Lee, CEO of Shakr, a video marketing company.

“We could do networking and marketing and were also able to receive investment from one of the members of WeWork. At the end of the day, coming to WeWork was definitely the right move for us.”

Creating a new work culture

WeWork calls itself a “community” company, as it builds communities by curating and creating a new office culture and enhancing the working experience. It says it is different from competitors, which function rather like traditional offices.

“We’re competing against office. We’re changing the way people work,” said Adam Neumann, one of the cofounders of WeWork, during a recent interview with Fortune.

Its mission statement is “Where people work to make a life, not just a living,” and its tagline is “Do what you love.” It calls itself a “mission-driven business,” as it helps people do what they love to do and use their work to benefit others. At WeWork, entrepreneurs can lean on its huge network of people, who are willing to offer advice and support.

“We connect our network of 65,000 members through our platform. Members expand globally through the network, are inspired by it and engage in events and opportunities to connect. We feel proud and happy to help them learn, connect and grow,” said Kim Soo-jin, community manager at WeWork in Gangnam.

In this way, the company has a human-centered, or more appropriately, a client-centered culture.

“We meet our members at the office every day and listen to what they do and what they need. We provide everything that would facilitate our members to focus on work. We also create events to connect members together and help them interact and gain new information.”

Not only that, the company is meticulous about hiring employees, as they find extreme value in finding a good match.

“We invest in employees, and they build the best products which translate into profit,” Neumann said.

How it started

WeWork was launched in 2010 during the global financial crisis by two entrepreneurs, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. They were struggling with the high rent of their offices, so they decided to buy an entire building floor, refurbish it and rent it out to individuals running their own businesses. Green Desk, the predecessor to WeWork, was a big success, and they sold it to their landlord in order to launch a bigger business.

WeWork is currently valued at 16 billion dollars and is ranked ninth as a unicorn, or a startup that is not IPO listed but valued at over 1 billion dollars. Despite doubts from many, the company has not only survived the financial crisis, it has actually grown bigger and bigger ever since; its value grew by 160 times in just four years.

Neumann and McKelvey anticipated the market trends and needs. People were becoming more open-minded about communal workspaces, and the concept of the sharing economy became an ever-growing trend. In addition, the rise of startups brought about the need for smaller and cheaper offices with one-stop services that allowed entrepreneurs to focus on work. WeWork successfully leveraged its strengths by linking its members through a global network, giving them valuable connections and another reason to stay.