According to a survey, The number of Japanese freelancers in 2017 was 112.2 million, which is more than 5% since the previous year. Considering the rise of the Millennial generation which has little resistance to recommendation of side work and compounding, this increase in freelance will continue in future.

It is a place of work to become a freelance problem. Although it is good to work at home, if you switch feelings or have companions who work together, I would like to prepare a place to work. However, the office is expensive, not so frequently used. It is difficult to prepare a security deposit key. Many people use co-working space, but popular areas such as Shibuya are always full.

It is trying to find a solution to such a situationSpacey. "Spacey" to share the conference room and "lunch time of the noon restaurant as a co-working space"Spacey coffeeWe operate the. I talked to Mr. Uchida, Representative Director.
(Interview: March, 2018)

Sharing economy to lend money conference room cheaply

Spacey has developed two main services. One is "Spacey" which is the sharing economy of the meeting room, and the other is "Spacey Coffee". I would like to introduce them in order.

"Spacey" is a service of the conference room for conferences. About 4000 conference rooms are rented at the time of the interview. When speaking of a conference room for rent, it is common to have a conference room owned by the company and lend it. But Spacey is different from them,Almost all of the lending is a room where other companies and individuals are available as a conference room, Taking the form of the so-called shearing economy. The user can borrow a conference room of another company at 500 yen per hour. Although it seems to be unqualified from the traditional Rental conference room fee structure, the cheapest thing so far is because the lender rents idle real estate. Because it is idle anyway, it is better to have income even if it is cheap.

Needless to say, even freelance and small companies want to use meetings, recruiting interviews and meeting rooms. However, we can not set up conference rooms due to space problems at our companywonHowever, it does not necessarily use it permanently as it increases in number. The meeting room demand is temporarily occurring.

On the other hand, a company that has a conference room does not fully operate the conference room from morning till evening, and the vacant time becomes idle. If it can be borrowed to the outside it will be a part of the rent (in other cases you may earn more than the rent).

80% of the use of the rented room is a business purpose such as conference, employment interview, seminar etc, but there seems to be cases in which card games are played and housewives' gatherings are used.

It takes time and effort to lend out free space by itself

Spacey was released in 201310Month. It is before the word "sharing economy" is commonly used. Why did Uchida find the need to lend and borrow vacant conference rooms?

When I was running the previous company, my business had stopped working on the way, and there were four people in a room with 30 people. But I could not move out immediately on contract. I also thought about lending out, but I gave up thinking that it was difficult to make an LP or advertise it. After all it took time to move to a small room, but this time we had a meeting in the cafe because there is no meeting room. Naturally, confidential conversation is hard to do. If you just use a conference room to rent out it, money is not going to be stupid.

So I thought that if I make a platform that matches both, I think we can build a winwin relationship. (Uchida, the same below)

When Mr. Uchida operated the former company, there were about 30 employees at the time. However, due to business relationships, it has been largely restructured. It fell to four at a stretch. It was Yamayama who wanted to move the office at once, but it is difficult to move immediately because it is necessary to notify the owner several months ago to leave. I also thought about lending vacant space, but I have to consult with the owner again, and I can not find any company moving in the space to relocate after 4 months. Well, if we were to find a company that would temporarily use it, we could not afford it as much trouble as making LPs or advertising for that.

Mr. Uchida who thought that there should be similar situations, "Although there is space left by their own lack of work, there is a similar situation such as business transfer and going overseas entirely overseas," Mr. Uchida is planning to conduct the sharing economy project of the conference room I decided.

Initially I rented a room in my apartment and rented my room as a test. At that time there was no cheap conference room for less than 1,000 yen in 1 hour, so the user's response was great. Although the rent is 100,000 yen, I succeeded in selling about 200,000 yen. Uchida confident in this business launched Spacey officially. Full scale deployment of sharing economy of meeting room for conference room.

By the way, as mentioned earlier, the Rental Conference Room seems to be an investment with no bad return if the location such as the station can be restrained. Some people prepare a room for investment and they are lending out with Spacey. If it is used as a conference room room, the initial cost of interior decoration and furniture is relatively small, and if posted on Spacey, advertising expenses are not involved, so it seems that it is often cost-effective investment.

One cup 50 yen coffee restaurant in the working space

Some users who use Spacey also have Nomad workers who wish to use wifi or power supplies. Such a person seems to satisfy the demand with a cafe etc., but the cafes in the center of the city are always full and not vacant. But if you borrow a meeting room for a conference room, it will be quite expensive. So Spacey's next attention was "night style eateries." These shops naturally open at night, but in the daytime they are idle assets in a sense.

People working at a cafe want a place to work, rather than wanting to drink a drink. I thought that if you could use a night style restaurant as a co-working space during the day, it would be a place to work for Nomads and freelance people, and also for eating and drinking establishments it would become a winwin relationship.

So Spacey said "Spacey coffeeReleased. "A cafe of a new type that can enjoy specialty coffee at 50 yen per cup".

(credit by Spacey)

Spacey coffee is equipped with power supply and WiFi at all stores. Currently it operates several stores, but as the number of stores increases, it will be possible to work in different places every day. One of the needs of working in a cafe is not a stormy place like an office or conference room, but it may be that you want an environment that stimulates creativity, but Spacey Coffee is a restaurant in the first place It fulfills the needs well.And, above all, one cup of coffee is 50 yen, the space usage fee is 30 minutes 50 yen (there is a possibility of price rise in the future) is a pleasure.

There are merits other than using idle time to the store side well. In the daytime, if you come to work for the user, the possibility of using it as a food restaurant as it is will also increase, and what is posted in Spacey Coffee will also become advertisements naturally.

Spacey coffee is running at the time of the interview. In the future it is only in the tablet that we want to register self-registered when the user comes and let it be free to spend.

Spacey's business model (created by pilot boat)

Paradigm shift of possibility from sharing economy

In addition to the two services we introduced, Spacey will continue to expand the service area of ​​"helping people working outside". The rental wifi business that I borrowed in March 2018 is 350 yen / day for the first 10 days, and then 88 yen / day for the first 10 days. Although planning still, it is also planning to be able to watch online lectures in a space like a conference room. The more people and opportunities to work outside, the more opportunities to use Spacey's services, and synergistic effects are expected.

How do you think about Spacey's future business development in the future?

With the introduction of Spacey, we were able to borrow meeting rooms cheaply. However, there are many conference rooms like one room at the apartment now. So I'd like to line up the lineup so that I can lend you luxury meeting room cheaply in the medium term.

Spacey's mission is "create possibilities in mind." By changing the mechanism, I would like to cause a paradigm shift in the possibilities.

Spacey which makes various paradigm shifts from the viewpoint of the share economy, various places from rental meeting room to daytime eating and drinking establishment. I want you to keep an eye on that trend in the future.

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