Coworking giant WeWork has its eyes set on a big Chinese expansion with the help of a $500 million investment from Hony Capital and SoftBank.
With the additional funds, WeWork plans to launch a separate Chinese business, allowing the company to accelerate its expansion in China. WeWork currently has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong and plans to move into at least five new big cities across China in the next twelve months. They expect 10,000 members in China by the end of this year. WeWork CEO Adam Neumann told the Financial Times that China is adopting the coworking model faster “than a lot of other places,” explaining the company’s decision to build a Chinese unit.
In an interview with Reuters, Neumann explained that WeWork China would allow for local management, as well as giving local equity and local incentives, to create a company that operates under local law and respects “all the different cultures and the different rules that exist.”
WeWork has plans to expand in other parts of Asia, starting with a Tokyo office due to open in 2018 and India to follow. It currently has 155 office spaces in 50 cities across 15 countries and is reportedly on track to bring in $1 billion in revenue this year.