Summary: The sharing economy is one of the hottest sectors in China, with $250m of seed and Series A capital invested April-May '17, without accounting for the $1 billion+ poured into bike-sharing start ups Mobike and Ofo. While some of these start ups have the potential to create significant businesses (e.g. car hailing and bike sharing), the verdict is still out on others that are peddling shared umbrellas or even basketballs. A more sustainable opportunity in this sector is in co-working space, which is fueled not only by the latest sharing economy craze, but rather built on the solid foundation of continuous growth in start ups and a tangible need for office space. Today we sit down with Randy Wan, CEO of Woo Space, one of the top 5 co-working spaces in China in direct competition with well known unicorns such as Wework. We'll cover a number of areas, including: how do Chinese co-working space offerings differ from that in the US, how do local competitors differentiate, and what is the role of services. We'll also review the sharing economy more broadly to understand what types of business models actually work and how do they make money. Lastly, we'll examine why high growth Chinese start-ups are so diversified, and how this applies to the very VCs that back them.
