Another Chinese digital health company goes public in Hong Kong, once compared to Teladoc

On September 17, 160 Health was listed in Hong Kong with a market value of nearly $1.37 billion, making it the fourth Chinese digital health company to go public.

160 Health was among the earliest companies VCBeat reported on, with the first article published 10 years ago in April 2015. It was one of the earliest among over 10,000 innovative healthcare companies that VCBeat reported and tracked since our founding in 2014.

Back in 2015, when we first covered 160 Health, we were wondering whether it might become the first Chinese digital health company to go public. In May 2015, we published our first article on Teladoc, predicting it would be the first online consultation company to IPO.

It was in July 2015 that we published the news about Teladoc's successful listing. The news created a huge stir in China, as Teladoc was one of the most important benchmark companies for China's digital health sector. VCBeat tracked and analyzed every major step of Teladoc's growth, helping Chinese entrepreneurs stay up to date. We often felt excited when Teladoc showed strong performance, and disappointed when it reported heavy losses. For a long time, innovation in Chinese digital health was closely tied to America's successes and setbacks.

This has also been a key focus for VCBeat: reporting on and analyzing the latest developments in U.S. healthcare innovation. Over the past decade of covering China's healthcare innovation, the U.S. has remained our most important reference point for research and learning.

Turning back to 160 Health, over the past ten years the company has faced many of the same challenges as Teladoc, especially in commercialization. In the last five years, however, Chinese digital health innovation has gradually taken a different path from the U.S.

Initially, Chinese digital health companies pinned their hopes on connecting doctors and patients online through direct-to-consumer models. Unfortunately, this business model has still not proven fully successful. Our continued tracking of Teladoc, Welldoc, Livongo, and other U.S. companies shows that this path is equally fraught with difficulties abroad. That said, the U.S. does have stronger subscription revenues and more support from commercial insurers.

Today, Chinese digital health companies have mainly evolved in these directions:

- SaaS services: providing digital health software solutions for governments, hospitals, insurers, and large enterprises.

- Digital marketing: offering academic marketing services for pharmaceutical companies.

- Supply chain services: becoming service providers for pharmaceutical and medical device distribution.

- Pharmaceutical e-commerce: currently the dominant model, with China's leading internet giants JD.com and Alibaba having spun off independent listed companies in this sector.

Although the initial online consultation model did not achieve full commercial success, it has still profoundly advanced healthcare innovation in China by making millions of doctors accustomed to using apps and internet tools, drawing them into the wave of innovation. It also pushed healthcare institutions, especially traditionally conservative hospitals, to quickly build today's highly convenient digital healthcare systems, benefiting hundreds of millions of patients. Lastly, it built the infrastructure for ongoing healthcare digitalization in China. Looking ahead, we still believe that stronger commercial success will emerge.