Every Move You Make, WeWork Will Be Watching You

Of the company swag worn by WeWork employees, one T-shirt slogan says a lot about where the shared workspace business is headed: “bldgs=data.”

It’s hardly a surprise that WeWork Cos. wants to make money collecting and analyzing information about how people move and operate within offices. In the past year it’s pushed hard on that front, acquiring Teem, a maker of software that captures conference room bookings. In February, WeWork bought Euclid, a service that tracks smartphones in retail spaces. WeWork also is testing several types of sensors, including thermal and motion detectors and Bluetooth check-ins. The tools help analyze how workers intend to use a space vs. how they actually use it, according to Shiva Rajaraman, WeWork’s chief product officer. It’s like “Google Analytics for space,” he likes to say.