Vanke VP to set up firm to help young entrepreneurs

By Yang Jing Source:Global Times Published: 2015-3-10 0:13:07

Intended to provide consulting, offices to small start-ups


Photo: IC



Mao Daqing, vice president of China Vanke Co, will leave his position at the country's leading property developer in three months' time and launch a start-up to serve young entrepreneurs, he announced at a press conference Monday.

The first initiative of Mao after leaving his office will provide a package of one-stop services including office rentals, financial consulting and investment to young entrepreneurs who have founded start-ups, news portal sina.com.cn reported Monday.

Mao's new company will purchase and refurbish old buildings, then rent them to young entrepreneurs as affordable offices, according to the report.

Media reports compared Mao's start-up idea with WeWork, a US start-up that began in 2010 and SOHO China Ltd's new program SOHO 3Q.

WeWork provides offices in seven cities in the US and Europe to its members to share and now it has about 15,000 members who are entrepreneurs, freelancers, artists or even divisions of large corporations, according to its website.

The company has raised $355 million in its funding in December and was valued at $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 16, 2014.

Real estate company SOHO China also started an office-sharing program named SOHO 3Q on February 1 in Beijing and Shanghai.

Clients can rent a desk or an office room in SOHO China's office buildings through its app or website soho3q.com, the company said on its website and pointed out that making orders and payment can both be done online and the rent period can be as short as one week.

In addition to office rooms, SOHO 3Q also provides necessary services such as Wi-Fi and printing, and also a chance for clients to know each other. 

Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, described SOHO 3Q as a highlight for the company's development in the age of Internet-based innovation, according to a post on SOHO China's Sina Weibo account on Friday.

The major goal of the office-sharing projects like WeWork and SOHO 3Q is not renting but building a platform for start-ups, Zhang Hongwei, a research director at Shanghai-based property consultancy ToSpur, told the Global Times Monday.

By gathering start-ups together, the office-sharing projects can be a platform for venture capital and potential entrepreneurs to find each other and build connections, Zhang said.

Hui Jianqiang, a vice director at industry information provider Beijing Zhongfangyanxie Technology Service, said that Mao may turn from a successful professional into an investor.

Mao said at the Monday press conference that he is interested in "having some influence on young people," although he did not elaborate his start-up plan.

The golden days of dramatic growth for Chinese real estate companies have ended, so there is a trend of developers, such as SOHO, providing services rather than merely property development, Hui told the Global Times Monday.

With his strong experience in the real estate sector, Mao must see potential in office property operation, Hui noted.

Although the GDP growth rate has been slowing down in China, the development of the services industry has created a growing need for office buildings, according to a research report sent to the Global Times Monday by real estate adviser Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

The office building market will benefit from the continually growing services industry, which will be further boosted by the Chinese government's financial sector reform, the JLL report said.

After leaving Vanke three months from now, Mao will continue to be "an external partner" of Vanke, sina.com.cn reported.

Meanwhile, the company has confidence in Mao's start-up initiative and will support it as a financial investor, Yu Liang, president of Vanke, said at the press conference.



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