The intense feeling the word itself, ‘naked’, gave me was very stimulating and enough to draw my attention as well. Besides, if this is linked to the word, resort, meaning a vacation spot, it is perfect for the people including myself to let our imaginations run away with us, isn’t it? That is how I became acquainted with the ‘naked Group’.
In the summer of 2012 when I settled in China as a sojourning employee, English was more convenient than Chinese for me yet at that time. I surfed the Internet with the word, ‘resort’, to find a good place around Shanghai for my family summer vacation. I found the website of ‘naked stables & Retreats (裸心谷 in Chinese)’ in the search results on the screen.
Oh, my goodness! Being ‘naked’ in the very conservative country like this! And it’s located in Mount Mogan. Mt. Mogan is 3 hours away from Shanghai and 40 minutes away from Hangzhou where the Alibaba Headquarters is. It was developed first by foreigners as a summer resort to avoid the hot summer of Shanghai in the enlightenment period of China. It’s also a typical resort many Chinese celebrities like Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek loved.
But my misunderstanding lasted only for a few minutes. Looking around the ‘naked Retreats’ website here and there, I realized this is kind of a combination of a luxurious country retreat, ‘naked Retreats’, and a resort, ‘naked stables’, in Mt. Mogan, which was run by foreigners. Now the country retreat is no longer in use and only the public resort called Stables and the private luxurious site, Castle, are up and running.
It was interesting to know that foreigners ran a resort complex on quite a large scale in China and soon it made my jaw dropped again to know its high prices. At that time one night at a 5-star hotel was less than 200 thousand Korean won but the price of the resort reached as much as the 400-thousand-Korean-won level. Actually because of the tremendous price, I pretended to grumble to my wife that we couldn’t visit there due to poor transportation. I was like a fox in the story of sour grapes in Aesop’s fables.
Four years have passed since I forgot about the word, ‘naked’. Not coincidentally it drew my attention again when I did the market research for coworking space in China in the fall of 2016.
Bump Into ‘naked’ Again
Oh! I know about this place! Do they have this line of business here?”
I was doing the market research on innovative working space and my Chinese co-worker introduced this ‘naked HUB(裸心社 in Chinese)’ to me as one of the hottest places in Shanghai.
In trying to recall what I had searched 4 years before, the ‘naked’ was definitely a luxurious place like a resort or a hotel for foreigners and now it becomes a coworking space. What on earth is it? With the strong impression the word, ‘naked’, gave me in the past, I made an appointment immediately through the Chinese co-worker who recommended this. The next day, I visited the ‘naked HUB’ in Hunan Lu(湖南路 in Chinese) which was close from my office.
Premium Coworking Space beyond comparison in location
According to the preliminary research, ‘naked HUB’ already has 6 branches in Shanghai in 2016. Now they have 8 branches and more branches up to 12 are going to be open.
The first branch of ‘naked HUB’ is in Fuxing Lu(复兴路 in Chinese) and the size is about 500m2 larger than the Hunan Lu branch. For Hunan Lu branch, the entire size is 1777m2 with 263 seats and 4 meeting rooms, which is the smallest among the 6 ‘naked HUB’ branches. But the area for exclusive use per one person is 6.75m2, which is on the large side. This is its strong point and the price is quite reasonable although it is located in the Former French Concession in downtown Shanghai. The price for a Hot Desk is 1,800 yuan per month, which is equivalent to 300 thousand Korean won or so.
The Former French Concession is an area in China which used to be under French rule before, where the French started living based on the Treaty of Nanking after the Opium War, which was quite humiliating to the Chinese. In the Concession there are some well-preserved buildings in European style built at that time. Plenty of foreigners are still living in this area now so many cafés, shops and brunch restaurants showing their lifestyle are concentrated here. At the same time it is located in the center of the city and the access to the commercial district like Pudong is easy and transportation is convenient. Accordingly the rent is expensive so it’s burdensome to rent an office here and it’s also difficult to be able to afford the rent when leasing an expensive office beyond his/her financial ability. For these reasons this is not the area preferred for renting an office.
Thanks to the boom in coworking spaces in China, however, ‘naked HUB’ has opened 2 branches in the Former French Concession and 6 more in the city center in the neighboring area. You can notice that they create an important customer value proposition, which is most important in business, and that they focus on location in setting up the goal of the premium market.
We can also see these features in the ‘naked HUB’ website. For example, the ‘Office Cost Calculator’ function is a good example that helps potential guests calculate the cost for using an office beforehand.
As you can see in the above, you can get the simulated expenses such as the conventional monthly rent, the monthly office operating costs and office supplies costs when you choose the area and type in number of your team members. It also compares these figures with the monthly rent at the ‘naked HUB’ coworking space.
Let’s take an example of Jing’an District, the most expensive part in downtown Shanghai. To calculate its price through this function, the conventional office rent is expected about 900 thousand Korean won per person and this is almost same as the actual one. The first two branches of ‘naked HUB’ in Fuxing Lu and Hunan Lu have advantages just in their locations.
In addition, there is the finishing blow making other competitors give up trying to challenge: Xintiandi branch, the flagship store of ‘naked HUB’. Xintiandi is an area called little Europe in Shanghai. It is the very heart of the city, with many refined and modern shopping centers in it, which is always crowded with many people. The ‘naked HUB’ Xintiandi branch is right in Xintiandi, neither near Xintiandi nor a few minutes away from Xintiandi. The branch is so big to be equipped with 670 seats, 8 meeting rooms and a room for events accommodating 350 people at a time in the total area of 4500m2.
This ‘naked HUB’ Xintiandi branch is second to none in comparison with WeWork which grows rapidly all over the world including Korea. An interesting thing is that ‘naked HUB’ is often compared with globally well-known WeWork although it is just a local company in China. I think this is due to the fact that the ‘naked HUB’ founders are of various nationalities and it offers foreigner-friendly environment and service in the coworking space. It might have some ties with the first resort in Mt. Mogan whose main guests were foreigners.
When I visited Xintiandi branch in person, there was an event held by a famous Chinese e-commerce company. Once you regard hosting this kind of event as a traditional subsidiary business of hotels, you can figure out the ‘naked HUB’ define this space as not just a coworking space but also another type of hospitality business. If so, I guess it can be a good idea for hotel chains in Korea to run some kind of coworking space inside the hotel or in the neighborhood.
Naked? Named by Mistake or Strategically Intended?
Wait a minute. Why did this company’s founder choose the instinctive word, ‘naked’, for the company name? We could find out through an interview with Grant Horsfield what company philosophy lies behind this simple word.
“The first word ‘naked’, kind of, tries to encapsulate the feeling that we have as a company, and certainly tries to tell the story about what’s important to us, and naked in its true sense is stripping away all the clothes, all the excess and going back to the roots, going back to the simple way of life.”
Does this philosophy mean the real relaxation indeed is possible only when people restore their true selves in the most primitive and natural state? If yes, did their resort, ‘naked Resort’, realize this philosophy? To answer these questions, I should use the resort first. Apart from the resort or the vacation spot, I was wondering if the philosophy and their vision can work well in a totally different category like the coworking space. With this kind of curiosity, I opened the hardwood front door, which felt a little heavy, of the ‘naked HUB’ Hunan Lu branch.
We Go to A Resort for Work!
“Wow, what is this?”
Although the coworking space itself is innovative, it’s still a place for work. The first impression the naked HUB gave was far different from the ordinary office. I felt like I had just arrived at a resort with great expectation and I was about to check in rather than visiting an office to work productively.
Vintage furniture and props of distinctive materials that we can hardly see in an ordinary office. Ambient bamboo lighting that might be seen in an old Vietnamese restaurant. ‘Green’ atmosphere from the flowerpots here and there on the ceiling and the wall.
If I didn’t know the naked HUB’s parent company runs a resort in Mt. Mogan, I would say, “What is going on here?”. But I do know the meaning of being ‘naked’ here so I could feel their philosophy and intention at that moment. At the same time, it was the moment I also realized they try their utmost in their branding strategy to create a totally different coworking space from other spaces.
For the 4 years since I first got to know this brand, ‘naked Retreats’ has become a bigger ‘naked Group’. Based on successful management of Mt. Mogan resort, it expanded the business out of China. Now it’s running 8 distinctive co-working spaces in downtown Shanghai on the basis of their essential capability for differentiated space reconfiguration.
While the ordinary co-working space tries to give people the identical feelings in all the branches with their brand identity shown from the standardized design in the facility, each branch of the ‘naked HUB’ has a different design concept. Even though I didn’t visit all the branches, I cannot find any branches of the same design at all while browsing the photos of their branches on the website. Except the basic factors for the brand identity, you can feel it’s a whole new place whichever branch you would visit. Considering their branches are not so far from each other and they stand close together, it would be fun to experience each branch a day for several days.
Let me introduce the founder of ‘naked Group’, Grant Horsfield for a moment. He was from the Republic of South Africa and he started the business in China in 2005 when he entered China first with his wife from Hong Kong, an architect. In 2007 he ran a small vacation cabin called ‘naked Retreats’ in Mt. Mogan with their own philosophy and thoughts. In the beginning, it was a real personal vacation home indeed. Then Grant grabbed a chance for resort business in Mt. Mogan area and started developing a large resort, ‘naked Stables’, after a long negotiation with the local government. This aroused a big interest in China when the concept of resort was not formed yet.
Later in 2015 they opened a co-working space in Fuxing Lu, Shanghai for the first time and it was so successful that 70% of the seats were signed up for the first month on the first day. Gaining confidence from this, they thought of spreading their own philosophy and values in a big city as well as in the natural area like Mt. Mogan. In late 2017 they expanded to Hong Kong and Vietnam, having the target of opening 30 branches.
In the middle of last July they declared they would merge with JustCo, the biggest co-working space company in Singapore with 41 branches in 9 cities in 6 countries. You can see they are trying to do their best to concentrate on the premium co-working market in Asia.
Spaces of The ‘naked HUB’ Hunan Lu Branch
Hunan Lu branch is small but it preserve the original philosophy and values of the ‘naked HUB’ well since it was built in the early stage. With strong exotic atmospheric features of the Former French Concession, the first floor was decorated like a villa or a beautiful café. You can see how hard they tried even from the branch location. It’s neither a crowded place like Xintiandi with lots of tourists nor a commercial area with plenty of department stores and shopping malls. It is generally quite picturesque.
It’s not a good thing that it has no close subway station. But this can be made up for when using a bike sharing service like Mobike or Ofo which are hot trends in China nowadays. In fact, you cannot say a subway station is far from here when you can use the Shanghai Library Station of Line 10 if you just walk about 10 minutes.
When you open the front door of ‘naked HUB’ Hunan Lu branch, there is a ping-pong table and table right in the middle. As you can see in the picture, the furniture concept and the arrangement have unique ‘naked’ style. Every ‘naked HUB’ member can use ‘the meeting room for 2 hours a month with no charge. If you exceed the time, you need to pay 100 yuan per additional hour. All the process from seating to reserving a meeting room and receiving the confirmation is done through its own application.
Generally there are some lockers for the users in the co-working space. But there is no personal locker with a lock here in ‘naked HUB’. You can use the storage space made of hardwood instead. This will be cleaned on a regular basis to prevent it from becoming a real storehouse.
Like any other co-working space, one of the ‘naked HUB’ members’ benefits is unlimited complimentary drinks. Self-serve bar is open to everybody and you can enjoy various drinks, coffee and even beer. Some branch has staff member in charge but Hunan Lu branch has a self-serve bar.
The most impressive thing in Hunan Lu branch was a large table for 20 people placed in an open space. The iron desk top and some hardwood chairs go well with the wooden floor so I felt like I was in a central library in college. There are comfortable couches and tables here and there in this open space. You can rearrange them for big events or ceremonies if necessary. Actually when I visited there, a lecture by an education company was going on. This open space is often used like this for some companies who are not members.
One of the Hunan Lu branch’s characteristics is that it has an outdoor space like a balcony. Enjoying the beautiful sunlight, you can feel like you are in an open-air café somewhere in Europe when you eat some homemade snack or some take-out food from a nearby restaurant. There is a unique French Concession street with plane trees right next to it. The Hunan Lu branch is surrounded by some buildings in European style across the branch and in the neighborhood, too. This shows well what ‘naked HUB’ aims for the values of their premium co-working space.
Membership Program
There are 4 membership plans you can take at ‘naked HUB’: Online Membership for mainly online activities, Hot Desk option for choosing a seat freely, Open Office option for a reserved seat and Private Office option.
In the past they used to have different membership prices in each branch but now they have standardized prices regardless of the branch the user chooses. Considering the profitability of each branch in terms of a supplier, it is obviously advantageous to have different membership prices, caused by different cost price structure including the branch’s monthly rent. On the contrary, it’s true that the ‘naked HUB’s standardized price can be more user-friendly for users. For your reference, a similar brand, WeWork, has different membership options and prices in each branch in Shanghai.
(1) Online Membership
The online membership is similar to a daily pass. It guarantees that you can use the space in any branch once a month. If you log on to the exclusive app, you can have chances to participate in various events held by the ‘naked HUB’ or to get in touch with other members. 300 yuan per month(about 50 thousand Korean won).
(2) Hot Desk
You cannot reserve a seat with this option but you can use any branch freely. A Hunan Lu branch manager said he set the maximum usage up to about 80% of the total available seats and manage them in order to offer the users the best environment. It’s not so desirable to have all the seats filled in terms of comfortable working environment. When 80% of the seats are taken in one branch, their searching system makes that branch unsearched online. For Hunan Lu branch, it’s less crowded than the other newly opened branches and it has never been made to be unsearched. 1,800 yuan per month(about 300 thousand Korean won).
(3) Open Office
You can reserve a seat with this option. Although it’s not completely separated, a compartmented section of the room like a partition for a team in a company, which allows the users to have independence to some extent, is offered for this option actually in the Hunan Lu branch. The price difference is 200 yuan, which is very small, between this option and the Private Office option with a separate office. This means this Open Office option is not just an option to reserve a seat but also almost a private office you can use. 2,800 yuan per month(about 470 thousand Korean won).
(4) Private Office
As it is, this means you can have a separate office with this option. With only a small price difference of merely 200 yuan (about 30 thousand Korean won) between this and the Open Office option, you can have your own complete space. This option is best for a startup or an ordinary firm to choose. The number of the available private offices varies among branches. The Hunan Lu branch we visited had only one left at that time. You can get a special offer if you sign up for a private office for 10 people or more. The discount is around 30% or so. 3,000 yuan per month (about 500 thousand Korean won).
Current Status of Coworking Spaces in Shanghai, China
The co-working space is ‘联合办公(lianhe bangong)’ in Chinese. An office is ‘办公室(bangongshi)’ in Chinese so a co-working office can be a better translation in meaning. For your reference, there are various incubating spaces as well as the commercial form of co-working spaces in China for boosting startups. The incubating spaces provide the service partially as the commercial co-working spaces do. So you need to look over these two to understand the present status of co-working spaces in China.
The incubating spaces for boosting startups ‘孵化器(fuhuaqi)’ in Chinese; you can easily understand this when you think of the literal meaning of the word to incubate the eggs. At present in July 2017, there are about 500 new working spaces like this in downtown Shanghai. Almost half of them were made within recent 3 years.
To calculate it shortly, suppose at least 300 seats are offered at one place. Then the total supply is up to 150 thousand seats in all over Shanghai. Of course this is just a minimum estimation. Taking the incubating spaces of colleges and universities, not counted for the statistics, into consideration, the total number is believed to reach up to at least 200 thousand seats. In terms of supply and demand, the supply is excessive and this affects the price immediately. For the Hot Desk, the highest price is 1,800 yuan (about 300 thousand Korean won) or so while the lowest one is less than 300 yuan (about 50 thousand Korean won). Besides, there are some places offering additional free months when you sign up for a long period.
Many Chinese local businessmen regard the co-working space business as a new form of real estate lease business. How you define your job can determine the target customers and the values the customers would receive. This is the distinctive strong point that the ‘naked HUB’ has.
Although the ‘naked HUB’ first started its business from hospitality business, its overall design concept is very similar to a resort. I think what made the ‘naked Group’ created such co-working space of quality is its own design team with strong competitiveness and the existence of the co-founder playing a role as a creative director.
Can A Coworking Space Have Its Own Culture?
The minimum unit who can use the co-working space is one person and the minimum usage period is very short like several hours a day or a whole day. Therefore, there are a lot of obstacles for the members to understand each other and finally build common ground among them. This means it’s not easy to let them have values, a real vocation and a sense of belonging like an ordinary organization or a firm. However, the ‘naked HUB’ announced its own DNA, which is not so strict, in spite of that innate limit and it tries to lead the users.
In most cases the major reason to visit the co-working space is to use the space. Beyond the first dimensional needs, the ‘naked HUB’ defines their own philosophy and values and even shares them. It is probably due to their strong will to show what they really pursue in the name of their brand ‘naked’.
“Anybody is welcome!
But will you just listen to our story? Human beings are not originally made for a city life. So sometimes we have to get back to nature as true selves. That’s what ‘naked’ means. If so, why don’t we let our office go ‘naked’? Why not?”
Reporter | Hangjae Lee ( E-Commerce Headquarters of E-Land China)
