Yingnuo hotel

From the American unicorn with the highest valuation to the capital black hole, WeWork "shocked" the world in another way.

WeWork recently announced that WeWork China has received an additional investment of US$ 200 million from Zhixin Capital. It is reported that after the completion of this investment, Zhixin Capital's shareholding in WeWork China has exceeded half, which means WeWork has sold its business in China.

At the same time, WeWork China has also welcomed a new CEO-Jiang Yueping, the operating partner of Zhixin Capital, will be its acting CEO.

From the swallowing of Wanli when I first entered China to now, I can't help wondering what happened to WeWork.

WeWork was established on 20 10, which mainly provides office space for entrepreneurs, freelancers, employees of small enterprises and large companies. At its peak, WeWork covered 32 countries and regions with 270,000 members, which almost became synonymous with "office space".

WeWork has long coveted the China market. Li Kaixian, managing director of WeWork Asia, said in an interview with the media: "The China market has great potential, WeWork is full of confidence in the China market, and China may become one of WeWork's largest markets in the world."

WeWork opened its first office in Shanghai as early as 20 16. A year later, WeWork joined hands with Hony Capital, a China investment company, and Softbank Group to formally establish WeWork China.

In 20 18, WeWork China received a $500 million Series B financing led by Zhixin Capital, Temasek Holdings, Softbank Group, Softbank Vision Fund and Hony Capital to further accelerate its business growth in China, and acquired Naked Heart Society, a joint office enterprise in China, at a high price of RMB 2.5 billion that year.

At that time, WeWork was active in business reports with a mythical attitude, with a valuation as high as $45 billion, but it never imagined that this became its last highlight.

A few months later, with the gradual publication of IPO documents, investors began to question this super unicorn. According to the prospectus, WeWork's American parent company had a net loss of $65,438.09 billion in 20 18, with total liabilities of about 22 billion and long-term liabilities of 65,438.0342 billion.

In addition, within two months of submitting the application, WeWork staged a series of oolong events, such as the departure of the founder, the cashing of the company's assets, and the divestment of institutions, which also triggered great distrust of WeWork's future in the capital market. The valuation dropped sharply from $45 billion to $8 billion, and the original mighty listing plan was finally forced to withdraw and became a laughing stock.

At the same time, the situation in WeWork China is not optimistic. According to statistics, WeWork's revenue in China is only $7.3 million, accounting for only 4% of the global revenue.

The biggest reason behind this is the slow localization process, which leads to high rent and high vacancy rate of WeWork with fine management. According to the Financial Times, 65.3% of WeWork's 8,000 desks in Shenzhen are idle, while the office vacancy rate in Xi 'an is 78.5%. It is reported that WeWork needs to maintain an average occupancy rate of at least 65% in order to make ends meet.

Now, after Zhixin Capital took over WeWork China, the new CEO Jiang Yueping said that he would turn WeWork China into a complete China holding company. Some insiders commented that it is good news for WeWork China to sell any amount greater than 1 yuan; For the industry, it just proves another case of acclimatization, and new enterprises will take its place.

Not just WeWork. In fact, it is normal for the entire office industry to close stores, lay off employees, owe commissions and sue heavily. The drama of "forced change of ownership" like WeWork China was staged in Krypton Space, an office brand in China.

20 19 in may, krypton space, which was deeply mired in the center of public opinion at that time, obtained 65,438 billion yuan of financing, which was jointly led by IDG capital, gefei assets and Yixing capital. At the same time, the management of the company had a violent shock. The partner of Asset Real Estate Fund became the CEO, in charge of the operation, Jiang, a partner of Innolux Angel Fund, became the CEO, and the capital also sent people to stay.

Behind all this is the embarrassment of burning money and enjoying work in no way back.

Tearing off the cloak of * * * enjoying the economy, the business model of * * * enjoying the office is not complicated, and its essence is still the property of the second landlord. Find a property in the market, rent it for a long time, transform it into * * * to enjoy office space, and then rent it to individuals or start-up companies at a higher price. It seems to be no different from eggshells and freely renting apartments for a long time. From this perspective, there is no technical moat in this industry, and any enterprise can enter as long as it has money.

In this context, in order to enjoy the "deus ex" of the office market, players from all walks of life are racking their brains to speed up the change.

For example, after obtaining financing, Krypton Space announced that it would readjust its business model and turn to the transformation of customized services. Krypton Space is currently positioned as an office-oriented enterprise service company, and plans to expand its customized business to more than 60% of its business.

Youke Workshop is also changing from heavy to light, focusing on brand output, asset custody and revitalizing hotel idle assets.

After WeWork's "baptism", the capital market gradually realized that no matter how beautiful the vision is, it is no safer than solid profit. Mike Wilsons, chief American equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, pointed out in a report to investors: "The failure of WeWork IPO marks the end of an era-that is, the era of' companies can get huge market valuations even if they are not profitable'.

It can be said that how to put on the cloak of "technology" again and realize intelligent upgrade and service expansion determines how far * * * can go in the future, otherwise it will be a dream waiting for WeWork.