Merkado Barkada
January 14, 2025 | 8:20am
Cebu Landmasters [CLI 2.62, down 0.8%; 74% avgVol] [link] has launched a “co-working spaces” brand called WorkNook, where “freelancers, small businesses, startups, and students” can pay to use to a “flexible, accessible workspace tailored to modern professionals.” CLI’s first deployment of this brand will be at Base Line Center in Cebu City, in response to what CLI refers to as “[Cebu’s emergence] as a hub for remote work and startups.” CLI says this is a “milestone in its diversification efforts”.
MB bottom-line: This is a business model that was popularized by WeWork, which was built around the same type of co-working space business model. The problem with WeWork was not the model itself, so much as the insanity of the founder and the insanity of WeWork’s inventors to push money into a real estate development scheme that was priced at internet unicorn startup valuations. I think these spaces are very useful, especially in a culture like here where you might find multiple generations living under one roof, or where entrepreneurship is so much a part of our everyday lived experience. These spaces offer small businesses the ability to scale up and down very quickly, and they give young people the ability to quickly solve a problem (office setup) that might otherwise distract them for weeks or months.
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