WeWork to open first office in Malaysia in 1Q19

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5): New York based co-working space WeWork will be opening its first co-working space in Kuala Lumpur in 1Q19.

To accommodate 1,900 members over five floors, its biggest office to date in Southeast Asia will be located at Equatorial Plaza here and will offer three main services – hot desking, dedicated desk and private office suites.

The hot desk rates are RM950 per month while the dedicated desk rate (fixed desk in a shared office) are RM1,150 per month whereas charges for the private offices start from RM1,200 per month.

The fees will include 24/7 access to the office, utilities, free flow of beverages, meeting rooms and printing service credits, high-speed WiFi access and entry to all 335 WeWork locations.

Speaking at the official announcement today, WeWork Southeast Asia director Turochas 'T' Fuad said they are excited to enter the Malaysian market, which is supported by the sustained and strong outlook for Malaysia's economic outlook.

Moreover, WeWork believes that despite the presence of many other co-working space here, the provider has its own niche which sets it apart from the competition.

"We don't see them [other co-working spaces] as direct competition, WeWork has been around for eight years and what we are doing – especially in the global network – is one thing that sets us apart very far from everyone else. Not only are we trying to help companies around the world enter Malaysia, we are also looking at how we can work closely with the government and other partners around Malaysia to help expand globally. With the WeWork network – 335 physical locations and 320,000 members around the world – that is one of the big differentiator [of ours from] other similar co-working spaces out there," said Fuad.

WeWork's local partner for Malaysia is Daman Land, whose role is to help WeWork engage with landlords as well as source for spaces to operate in Malaysia.

The collaboration is facilitated via a participatory leasing partnership, which WeWork is also practicing across the globe as their business model.

However, they declined to reveal the revenue sharing percentage when asked by the media.

On the take up rate of the office space, Fuad said response has been good and expects its Kuala Lumpur office to be fully leased out before it even opens, like WeWork's other premises internationally.

Meanwhile, WeWork is also looking to expand into other places in Malaysia aside from the CBD area of Kuala Lumpur.

"We do plan to extend to other parts of Kuala Lumpur such as Bangsar and Damansara and over the next few months and years, we will be looking at other parts in the cities of Malaysia as well," said Fuad.

WeWork is currently in 16 locations in Southeast Asia with more than 11,000 desks across the region including Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Manila, Jakarta and Bangkok.

Globally, they are present at 83 cities and 24 countries in the world with over 320,000 members.