Future of Coworking in India

Coworking spaces are gaining popularity like never before, people have been quite welcoming towards the idea of shared offices or what we call as a coworking space. While we dig into this topic further, let us understand when and how this notion came to existence.

A brief history of Coworking around the globe:

• It is believed that the first coworking was introduced in 1995 by a group of hackers, they called it hackerspace. The idea was to share skills, space and knowledge in their future projects.
• In the same year, Bernard Dekoven, coined the term coworking and coworking spaces were officially introduced with the idea of sharing spaces and knowledge under one roof.
• It later gained popularity, and by 2020 when the pandemic hit, everyone found it sustainable and suitable that is affordable and flexible.

Coworking and its introduction in India :

• Coworking is known to everyone by now, people are pretty aware of shared office spaces and their advantages, also the reason why coworking is gaining immense popularity and appreciation is because of the flexibility quotient that it adds.
• The traces of coworking in India dates back to 2012, 91Springboard was the first company to start its operations in a shared office space. Later in 2017, a number of firms in Bangalore adopted coworking spaces over traditional ones. 
• In 2018, a significant growth was seen in the graph of coworking. Many major cities in India for example, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad switched to coworking.

Growth of coworking spaces in the past years (India):

• The valuation of the coworking industry has seen a growth of  2.2 billion dollars by 2022. As per the recent studies, the Indian coworking market has grown to 50 million sq. ft. by 2023.
• The growth of coworking has been significantly remarkable, hence the potential market size of coworking expected to touch 12 to 16 million across India.  The coworking market lease has shown estimated growth across India in the year 2014 - 2020
• Notably in 2021 India ranked second globally for having the most coworking spaces. The count was 2,197.

Why are people switching to coworking? What is the reason for this tremendous expansion?

The answer is easy and simple to understand. Coworking spaces are profitable because they provide a flexibility quotient to the employees, besides, people are more aware of their jobs and responsibilities. Environment has a psychological impact on the employees and hence a good and flourishing ambience at the workplace addresses more productivity and growth of the company. Also, regardless of the skills and professional people coming together a better knowledge and skill exchange can happen under the single roof, which is why companies are now more inclined towards coworking.

Benefits include:

1. Better networking opportunities
2. Flexibility
3. Knowledge enhancement
4. Affordable pricing
5. Amenities

What is the future of coworking in India?

Started under different conditions at different places around the globe. The future of coworking is evident through the statistics as mentioned, but why is coworking being accepted? Listed below are some pointers

1. Technological advancements: The coworking spaces are constantly improving by introducing new and better technologies. This might include 5G internet, security access, and many such.
2. Flexible hours and remote working: Coworking spaces are not necessarily like a traditional work space. The flexible hours, comfort and professionalism is all at once here. This quotient is one major reason why people prefer investing in coworking.
3. Building a community and peace: Building a community is made way easier with coworking space, as coworking space gives you a liberty to meet and interact with people of different communities working under the same roof. You make new friends, new networks and explore better career options.Also, studies show that people after switching to coworking space feel less alone than ever, they have people working with them.
4. Shifting of large companies towards coworking: Large companies have made a difference and popularised the whole concept of coworking spaces. Giants like Amazon have made their way towards coworking.

Concluding note:

Coworking spaces are one of the fastest growing communities currently across the globe, it has not only worked for many companies and startups but is now gaining popularity significantly in India as well. It not only contributes to India’s GDP but also is going to grow significantly by 2024 as per the recent reports.

There are a lot of factors that comfort companies to switch to coworking spaces. It can be the affordability, the flexibility or the networking trends that it offers, choice is yours.