UrWork teams up with Ant to go human-less for its services
Chinese co-working space startup UrWork is working with Ant Financial Services Group, the financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, to adopt staff-less services solutions in its shared offices.
In increasing numbers of UrWork offices, face recognition and digital payment technologies have replaced the human touch.
For offices that have so far been converted, those who use UrWork facilities can enter conference rooms, fitness rooms, KTVs and laundry rooms — or buy beverages, fast food and snacks — without the help of their fellow man. All they need to do is to scan the QR code or look at a screen and blink.
The high-tech workspace is being funded through a partnership with Ant Financial. According to the partners, UrWork is the first co-working office company to access Ant Financial state-of-the-art knowhow.
The experience is similar to a cashier-free retail store, called Tao Cafe, unveiled by Alibaba in July in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
In order to enter the store, customers must have Taobao app downloaded onto their phone. The 200-square-meter store, which offers beverages, fast food and snacks, can accommodate 50 customers at a time.
Alibaba’s AI and data technologies have made it possible for customers to shop in this offline store without going through the timeconsuming process of lining up to pay. After selecting their desired products, shoppers simply exit the store and their bills are automatically settled via the e-payment accounts on his or her smartphones.
The cashier-free experience will be applied to more scenarios in the next three years, which will stimulate more buying by customers and encourage product upgrades,” said Mao Daqing, founder and CEO of Ur Work.
The cutting edge technology includes biological recognition, deep learning algorithms, and computer vision technology, which can be applied to shared offices, unmanned retail stores, fitness room and KTVs.
Ant Financial plans to promote this cashier-free experience to more merchants, providing identify verification, risk control and payments and settlement services.
Jiang Kui, an industry director at Ant Financial’s merchant services department, said the cashier-free experience combines automated visual sensors and facial recognition to reduce error rates.
Jiang said the company is devoted to opening up more technologies to small and medium-sized enterprises, such as VR payments, intelligent money management and intelligent customer services.
cities
Founded in 2015, UrWork offers shared office spaces to small businesses and entrepreneurs. It is backed by Sequoia Capital, in addition to Ant Financial, and was recently valued at $1.3 billion after a merger with its domestic rival, New Space.
It has established its co-working office platforms across 18 cities, including Shanghai and Beijing.
UrWork is expected to expand to 32 cities around the globe in the coming one to three years, and be capable of providing 100,000 sets of workstations. The overall working space will reach 700,000 square meters, Mao said.
Lu Zhenwang, CEO of Shanghaibased Wanqing Consultancy, said staff-less stores would bring the “next spring” to the retail industry, though this kind of store is in its trial phase and the related technology is not mature.
The staff-less service model is set to create business and job opportunities for industries along the industrial chain, from information processing to sensor manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing, said Pan Helin, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.