Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive of technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp, is known for making solid bets in China’s hi-tech sector. Around 18 years ago, Son’s company invested US$20 million in a small Chinese online retail platform that rapidly grew to become e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding.
Son in July invited the heads of fast-rising Chinese companies Ping An Good Doctor and Didi Chuxing to a party he hosted in Tokyo, in a testament to how far these two firms have grown since SoftBank invested in them.
Wang Tao, the founder, chairman and chief executive of Ping An Good Doctor, acknowledged Son’s contribution amid the Hong Kong-listed online health care provider’s efforts to innovate and extend its operations outside the mainland.
“Mr Son helped us a lot in our international expansion,” said Wang in an interview with the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the fifth World Internet Conference held earlier this month in Wuzhen, a town in China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang.
The overseas foray by Ping An Good Doctor, which is formally known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co, is part of its major expansion programme after raising US$8.5 billion in proceeds from its initial public offering in Hong Kong in May.
That programme is led by the development of an extensive network of unstaffed, artificial intelligence-powered clinics on the mainland. The capabilities of this clinic were shown at the conference in Wuzheng.
“We plan to build hundreds of thousands of these unstaffed clinics across the country in three years,” Wang said.
Each clinic, which is about the size of a traditional telephone booth, enables users to consult a virtual “AI doctor” that collects health-related data through text and voice interactions. After the AI consultation, the information gathered is reviewed by a human doctor who then provides the relevant diagnosis and prescription online. Customers can buy their medicine from the smart drug-vending machine inside the clinic.
Ping An Good Doctor’s AI clinic expansion has come amid Beijing’s commitment to drive its “Healthy China” strategy. In April, China’s State Council issued a statement to accelerate the country’s online health care market by establishing proper service systems, a support network and regulatory framework.
That domestic market is expected to reach 100 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion) by 2025, up from 15 billion yuan last year, according to estimates by Frost & Sullivan.
Founded in 2014, Ping An Good Doctor was spun off from the Ping An Insurance Group and operates the biggest online health care platform on the mainland, with 228 million registered users and 48.6 million monthly active users as of June 30.
Its Good Doctor smartphone app, which was launched in 2015, provides diagnosis, treatment and online appointment booking. It also enables users to communicate with health care professionals through text, photos, and video. The app has a database of articles on health care and supports a microblog-style discussion forum on health-related topics. There is also an online store that sells medicine, health care products, cosmetics and gift vouchers for medical services.
The company has described its operations as a “closed loop health care ecosystem”, which enables users to conveniently get medical consultations and drug purchases online, as well as offline follow-up medical treatment.
The planned AI-enabled clinics, each of which costs 30,000 yuan to build, would help further expand Ping An Good Doctor’s reach in the mainland’s growing internet health care market.
Son in July invited the heads of fast-rising Chinese companies Ping An Good Doctor and Didi Chuxing to a party he hosted in Tokyo, in a testament to how far these two firms have grown since SoftBank invested in them.
Wang Tao, the founder, chairman and chief executive of Ping An Good Doctor, acknowledged Son’s contribution amid the Hong Kong-listed online health care provider’s efforts to innovate and extend its operations outside the mainland.
“Mr Son helped us a lot in our international expansion,” said Wang in an interview with the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the fifth World Internet Conference held earlier this month in Wuzhen, a town in China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang.The overseas foray by Ping An Good Doctor, which is formally known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co, is part of its major expansion programme after raising US$8.5 billion in proceeds from its initial public offering in Hong Kong in May.
That programme is led by the development of an extensive network of unstaffed, artificial intelligence-powered clinics on the mainland. The capabilities of this clinic were shown at the conference in Wuzheng.
“We plan to build hundreds of thousands of these unstaffed clinics across the country in three years,” Wang said.
Each clinic, which is about the size of a traditional telephone booth, enables users to consult a virtual “AI doctor” that collects health-related data through text and voice interactions. After the AI consultation, the information gathered is reviewed by a human doctor who then provides the relevant diagnosis and prescription online. Customers can buy their medicine from the smart drug-vending machine inside the clinic.
Ping An Good Doctor’s AI clinic expansion has come amid Beijing’s commitment to drive its “Healthy China” strategy. In April, China’s State Council issued a statement to accelerate the country’s online health care market by establishing proper service systems, a support network and regulatory framework.
That domestic market is expected to reach 100 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion) by 2025, up from 15 billion yuan last year, according to estimates by Frost & Sullivan.
Founded in 2014, Ping An Good Doctor was spun off from the Ping An Insurance Group and operates the biggest online health care platform on the mainland, with 228 million registered users and 48.6 million monthly active users as of June 30.
Its Good Doctor smartphone app, which was launched in 2015, provides diagnosis, treatment and online appointment booking. It also enables users to communicate with health care professionals through text, photos, and video. The app has a database of articles on health care and supports a microblog-style discussion forum on health-related topics. There is also an online store that sells medicine, health care products, cosmetics and gift vouchers for medical services.
The company has described its operations as a “closed loop health care ecosystem”, which enables users to conveniently get medical consultations and drug purchases online, as well as offline follow-up medical treatment.
The planned AI-enabled clinics, each of which costs 30,000 yuan to build, would help further expand Ping An Good Doctor’s reach in the mainland’s growing internet health care market.
by Yingzhi Yang, South China Morning Post | Read more:
Image: Reuters
