[hbbio]

There is clearly a market for WeWork... and many competitors. WeWork is and will be a great company, no matter what.

WeWork main competitor is Regus, founded in 1989. Regus is now present worldwide with revenues of 2.535 billion GBP (2018). Their market cap is a mere 3.68 billion!

There are also tons of smaller companies in that sector which are not international (mostly 1/2 countries) with much lower valuations.

So, the business model is fine, the market fine, the room to expansion here (especially with growth of remote work). Just the previous valuation wasn't.

[chrisseaton]

Have you ever been in a Regus office? They're horrible spaces. They don't get it. WeWork is a lot nicer. That's why they're worth a lot more.

[inthewoods]

I'm probably in the minority but I find WeWork spaces horrible - just a collection of fishbowls. I can't get out of there fast enough.

[hbbio]

Yes, I did rent an office from Regus a few years ago... and it did look horrible!

But for the difference in valuation, that's an easy thing to do in a LBO: Hire a Chief Design Officer!

Thanks to WeWork maybe, their new offices are better: https://www.regus.co.uk/offices/united-kingdom/county-edinbu...

[ohashi]

I've been a few times in different locations around the world. They were blander than WeWork and had about the same level of community. It was just an office. WeWork branded itself as something special... it isn't. It's a slightly nicer looking office (with beer* maybe). Regus is profitable and has a valuation in line with what they do. WeWork... doesn't.

[cure]

Yeah. Regus offices are dreadfully bland. Also, they nickel and dime you for every little thing (you want an hour of wifi for that meeting room you booked? it's going to cost you...). Regus is also very expensive, as office space goes.

[samsonradu]

This could be due to the fact that margins are slim and they're trying to make a profit?

[marcinzm]

>WeWork is and will be a great company, no matter what.

That depends on their financial state. If they over expanded with the expectation of future capital to cover future contractual costs then they'll need to find a way to cover those costs without funding. That could be impossible without declaring bankruptcy.

[icelancer]

>> WeWork main competitor is Regus

Not really. Regus is brutally bad. I am not a fan of WeWork specifically but it's vastly superior to Regus' offices, old-school style of lead capture, and terrible dealing with its customers.

I now lease from an independent co-working space to expand on my small business' offices until we can find a larger space at a reasonable price (good luck with that in Seattle), and it's been great. WeWork helped push co-working along. Regus has done absolutely nothing in this regard for decades.