HONG KONG, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As China recovers from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, online healthcare is playing a key role in ensuring a healthy and robust future for individuals, companies and communities. Ping An Good Doctor (1833.HK), a leading online medical and healthcare service platform in China, has shown the way forward and has recently posted a strong financial performance for the first half of the year completing a comprehensive strategic upgrade that has seen the company improve its services and capacity as well as enhance the various channels through which it interfaces with users.
In six months, Ping An Good Doctor gained RMB3.818 billion in revenue, growing by 39% compared to the same period last year. Clearly, internet healthcare services have become part of the new norm for residents when it comes to seeking a medical consultation. Revenue from medical services came in at RMB1.067 billion representing 50.6% year-on-year growth.
Ping An Good Doctor now counts more than 400 million registered users as part of the platform; the cumulative paying users grew by 69.6% to 32.1 million compared to the figure at the interim period of the previous year. Other business verticals such as Consumer Healthcare also contributed to overall growth.
Ping An Good Doctor has focused on three medical specialties over the past year – dermatology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and gynecology and obstetrics. Ping An Good Doctor has gathered more than 100 famous specialists in these fields with 24/7 online consultation services offered by in-house medical team complimented by renowned doctors. Users have a wide range of services such as consultations, prescription, medication guides, results interpretation and follow-up care available at home.
In-house medical team have been instructed to take up ownership of health outcomes and act as account managers with medical knowledge. As such, they look to provide a dedicated lifelong GP for each customer through four specific scenarios – health management, sub-health management, disease management and chronic disease management.
Continuously expanding user acquisition channels
As demand for online healthcare grows, Ping An Good Doctor has also expanded its capacity with its network of external doctors. More than 70% doctors hail from tertiary hospitals while the company has also launched 450 Famous Doctor Studios, effectively creating a four-tier doctor network, underpinned by AI-based Doctor Assistant, in house medical team provide basic services in response to common healthcare demand, external doctors who are the backbone of clinic teams address core demand of patients, and famous doctor studios build up professional image, that has done remarkably well. Similarly, incubation efforts are underway to create a similar ecosystem for other medical specialties such as ophthalmology, pediatrics, internal medicine and surgery.
Perhaps, the highlight of the previous six-month period has been the expansion of user acquisition channels that empowers the Ping An Group to provide customer-centric financial services. High-value users have been acquired through financial services channels and corporate customer channels such as insurance, integrated financial services (such as Ping An Bank and Ping An Puhui), and corporate health insurance plans offered by related business units that are part of the Ping An Group. Ping An Good Doctor has offered such users medical membership products, health check-ups and health management services and others to attract high-quality customers.
Ping An Good Doctor has also developed corporate customers by providing customized products understanding the needs of employers and employees while keeping in mind industry-specific attributes and employee conditions. By reducing employers' cost of medical treatment for employees and formulating customized health management solutions, Ping An Good Doctor has become a preferred health partner for employers and a loyal health guardian for enterprises and employees.
Finally, Ping An Good Doctor's Internet Hospital development has also achieved remarkable progress as it has been licensed to develop Internet hospitals under self-construction model in 10 cities and has signed co-construction agreements with 205 hospitals to build Internet hospital platforms. Such platforms combine the extensive medical resources, doctor resources and user traffic resources with influential offline public hospitals. They allow offline to online docking at offline hospitals connecting online and offline services and establishing a diagnosis and treatment system covering the whole medical treatment process for users living in remote areas. Ping An Good Doctor will continue the work on this front and even establish a link to local social health insurance payment systems.
In summary, Ping An Good Doctor has benefited from a growing awareness and trust in Internet healthcare services among users and has reaped dividends from earlier strategic investments. Not only has this allowed Ping An Good Doctor to post a remarkable performance across core operating and financial metrics, it remains confident of maintaining the robust growth momentum and balanced performance across business segments.
As the leading online healthcare service platform in China, Ping An Good Doctor will continue to bridge communication between doctors and patients and continue to build an Internet healthcare platform with the largest scale, the most advanced models, and the highest entry barriers in China.
