BEIJING: JD Health, the online healthcare platform of China’s e-commerce giant JD.com, released the prospectus for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 26, aiming to sell 381.9 million shares through the IPO to raise up to $3.4 billion. Operating as a subsidiary since 2019, it has become the third online healthcare platform going public in China, following Ali Health of e-commerce giant Alibaba and the platform Ping An Good Doctor under the financial firm Ping An Insurance Group.
Online healthcare services mainly include telemedicine and online sales of drugs, which can enhance the efficiency of medical services, bring convenience to users and drive the progress of medical and information technologies, Lu Qingjun, Director of the National Telemedicine and Connected Health Center, told Beijing Review. In recent years, China has seen a boom in the sector with more players entering the field and further government support. Besides JD.com and Alibaba, tech companies including Tencent and Baidu have also developed smart healthcare businesses. Internet hospitals developed by enterprises and physical hospitals have seen further growth. China’s first Internet hospital WeDoctor was set up in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province in east China, in December 2015.
According to Mao Qun’an, an official with the National Health Commission, at a forum held in Beijing at the end of this October, the number of Internet hospitals operating in China had already reached 900 by the time.
As people were encouraged to avoid visiting public places when the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit many regions in China earlier this year, the demand for remote diagnosis and treatment grew exponentially. To meet the surging demand, the government released a new guideline at the end of February to include Internet-based medical services and subsequent treatments under the medical insurance coverage. The government has also stressed the need to improve online payment services for telemedicine and expand channels for medicine purchase. Since 2015, over 100 policies and rules on online healthcare have been released. The scale of China’s online healthcare market will reach 200 billion yuan ($30.4 billion) this year due to the impact of the epidemic and favorable policies, according to the forum.
Expanding market: Online healthcare platforms have seen improvements in their performance with the growth in demand for drugs and medical consultations. Many consumers turned to online pharmacies to purchase medical supplies including masks and surgical alcohol and made online appointment for nucleic acid tests in the previous months.
Data from Beijing-based consultancy Analysys Qianfan showed that daily active users for online medical consultation apps peaked at more than 6 million during the Spring Festival holidays from January 24 to February 2 this year when the epidemic was spreading domestically, increasing by 1.6 million, a year-on-year growth of 31.28 percent. As more people have developed the habit of using online platforms, China-based research firm AskCI Corp. projected the market scale of online medical consultancy to reach 22 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) this year and grow to 68 billion yuan ($10.3 billion) in 2022 in a report released in September.
Over the past months, online healthcare platforms backed by enterprises have been deeply involved in the anti-epidemic battle and registered remarkable revenue growth. Starting from April, Ali Health offered appointment services for nucleic acid tests in more than 30 domestic cities. JD Health and WeChat, Tencent’s social media app, also provided the services in a dozen cities.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
