The so-called sharing economy has brought convenience and lower prices to hospitality, transportation, and other consumer sectors. But companies under the sharing-economy umbrella, such as Airbnb and Uber, have also spurred protests, and even violence, along with increased government scrutiny over these new ways to do business.
WeWork, by contrast, hasn't had these problems, making it "unique" compared with peers in other industries, the company's copresident Artie Minson told Business Insider in a recent interview.
"We're certainly one of the few sharing-economy companies that were welcomed with open arms in all markets," he said. "Mayors like us, neighborhoods like us, frankly employees like us, employers like us, the environment likes us. Those are all qualities that certainly some of the other sharing-economy companies are challenged with at times."
Read more: Governments are getting better at regulating the 'sharing economy'
A survey released Monday — WeWork's first "global impact report" — quantified some of the benefits WeWork said it provided members and economies alike. WeWork said it contributed $74.8 billion to global gross domestic product, including $31.5 billion in New York alone. About half of its enterprise members, a major growth area for WeWork, said the company had helped them expand to new markets.
The report came the same day as WeWork said it had filed its draft registration to go public. WeWork rebranded as The We Company in January in an effort to expand beyond commercial office rentals. SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate, has invested some $10 billion in The We Co., most recently in January, at a valuation said to total about $47 billion.
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WeWork's report follows similar efforts from other sharing-economy companies to highlight the positive effects they purport to bring to local businesses and economies.
WeWork, for example, said 70% of its members didn't work in the neighborhood before joining WeWork, "bringing more activity and spending to local restaurants and shops." Airbnb, meanwhile, said its guests spent 2.1 times as much as typical visitors, with almost half of that spending in the neighborhoods where they stayed.
Uber released a study last summer saying it supported $17 billion worth of gross domestic product in the US in 2017, among other metrics, while Lyft said spending in local economies increased by $3 billion in 2017 because of the ride-hailing company's availability.
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