Dialogue with new economy figures| Jia Fan, founder of Bee Technology: In the post-epidemic era, we should operate an office space brand like a five-star hotel| and the cover is seen every day

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Cover news reporter Ouyang Hongyu intern Chen Dong

In the past year, the global pandemic has set off a wave of telecommuting. Break the space limit, solve the commuting troubles, improve office comfort... In the view of many people, with the development of network technology, remote office such as home office will replace offline office such as co-working and become a new trend in office; clustered office space will no longer exist.

In the future, is there really no need for office space to exist? What kind of office space products will have a market? Recently, Jia Fan, founder and CEO of Bee Technology, an offline office space operation company, predicted in an interview with the cover news reporter that offline office space will not be subverted by online office, but will absorb collaborative office products and make it their own supplement. "In the future, people's lifestyles will be integrated into the office scene, and the industry will develop towards the trend of branding, chaining and lightweighting."

The offline office scene will not disappear

The asset-light model will solve the problem of profitability

A few days ago, Apple's new regulations required employees to return to the new headquarters to work, and some employees resisted, saying, "Resolutely disagree, or resign", causing concern.

Since the spurt of development in 2016, the offline office track represented by co-working has run for five years. But under the epidemic, is it time to go nowhere?

Javan's answer was no. "People are social animals, and they need to build social relationships, reach trust with others, and build organizational culture through face-to-face." In his view, the implementation of social attributes requires a specific customized physical space, and the office space cannot be replaced by remote work models such as home work. "Online office products will only become a supplement to offline office products, but they will not subvert the offline office scene."

In fact, in the past, players on the co-working track have not had a good time. WeWork reported a loss of $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2021, with memberships falling to 490,000 from 693,000 in March 2020. As early as 2019, Pan Shiyi had sold its SOHO 3Q, and the huge loss of Kr space shifted its business line to fine decoration; Ucommune Factory landed on the US stock market last year, and its valuation shrank by one-third.

It seems that the reason why the tall co-working will face an existential crisis is that the problem of profitability has always been the pain point of the industry. In this regard, Jia Fan believes that the traditional co-working "two landlords" model has dragged down the development of the industry.

"The two-landlord model mainly relies on earning rent differences, and if it encounters economic downturns or fluctuations, the market risk caused by the rigid payment of rent costs will be unbearable for enterprises." Jia Fan said that in the future, offline office space products should get rid of heavy assets, no longer invest in rent and decoration, share the cost with landlords and owners, and participate in office space operations in a branded way to achieve asset-light. "Office space products in the asset-light model, there is no rent pressure, but also through value-added services to obtain more income, it will only be a problem of making more and making less."

Do the brand with high-end hotel management thinking

Office space should give people stable expectations

Recently, a number of commercial real estate research institutions released survey data showing that the vacancy rate of office buildings in Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and other places has declined, of which the net absorption of the Shanghai office market has doubled, and the city's vacancy rate has reached the lowest in two years.

Since the second half of last year, the domestic economic operation has shown a stable and good trend, and the business environment in various places has been continuously optimized, which has led to an increase in the demand for office buildings, and has also triggered an intensification of competition in the offline office products industry. How can offline office spaces always maintain an advantageous position in the competition for office listings and maintain an asset-light model?

The answer given by Jia Fan is to absorb the non-performing assets of the office building and empower the management and operation capabilities of the building owners with their own brand advantages, so as to earn commissions and brand management fees. "The owners who cooperate with us often turn to cooperate with us after their own renovation failures, so almost all the owners of the office buildings they cooperate with will not sign a profit betting agreement," it is understood that after the office space design and transformation, the owner's rent can rise three times compared with before.

Just last week, Bee Technology and Chengdu Jinniu City Investment completed a vacant office renovation project, which is also its first project in Chengdu. Talking about the feeling of entering the Chengdu market for the first time, Jia Fan said that Chengdu is building a new highland for the national headquarters economic convergence, which is in line with the business policy of Bee Technology not serving start-up enterprises and only providing services to the regional headquarters of large and medium-sized Internet companies. "Next, we are still planning to set up a southwest headquarters in Chengdu, where talent is still relatively cheap."

In Jia Fan's view, to create an advantageous offline office space brand, "just like in the hotel industry, many consumers are accustomed to choosing five-star hotels because the living expectations are stable, which is the most important thing for brand chains." "He believes that high-quality office space operators should have excellent product concepts and strong execution capabilities at the same time to create a chain brand with stable expectations." In the office field, branding, hoteling and chaining products is what we have to do. ”

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