Ben Thompsons on WeWorks $10 Billion valuation in its newest round (paywall):
The biggest bull case for Uber isn’t simply that it replaces taxis, or even that it takes a big bite out of traditional logistics companies. Rather, it’s that Uber replaces the very concept of car ownership.
It can be argued that a potentially similar seismic shift is happening with work: it’s not simply that WeWork appeals to new startups in the way that Uber appeals to tech workers in San Francisco; it’s that the economy is fundamentally transforming from the traditional big corporate model that has dominated for the last 70 years to one based on individual actors and ever-shifting worker alliances that come together to work on a specific project and then disband. In this vision WeWork’s communal aspects are not just a nice perk but in fact a fundamental part of how work gets done, and WeWork itself the best possible way to bet on this new economy’s long tail.
New York-based WeWork is essentially providing office space as a service. Think something similar like a coworking space (a little bit more expensive but flexible and with additional services) but by a big provider.
