Douyin's New Medical Device Collaboration Rules Reshape Marketing Landscape

In the first half of 2024, Douyin updated its rules for collaboration on medical device sales, opening up flagship store/official flagship store collaborations with influencers. This means that qualified influencers are now permitted to sell specific medical device products through live streaming or short videos. This marks another significant move by Douyin in laying out its medical device sales strategy, following the introduction of an invitation-only onboarding system and a brand self-application system since 2022.

Social media platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu have long drawn intense industry scrutiny for their every move in the healthcare sector. Leveraging their massive traffic gateways, these platforms are reshaping the industry ecosystem and even redefining the marketing landscape for general health products.

In the evolving marketing landscape, full-scope health and wellness content ecosystem operators, represented by Knowledge Matrix, have played a pivotal catalytic role. It is reported that after Douyin further relaxed its collaboration standards for medical devices in 2024, a health influencer under Knowledge Matrix achieved a benchmark case during the 618 shopping festival: generating over RMB 5.25 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) in a single live-streaming session, with daily sales exceeding RMB 7 million. VCBeat conducted an exclusive interview with Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui), Founder and CEO of Knowledge Matrix, to elaborate on the “catalytic” value his company brings to the evolution of the marketing landscape.

Consumer demand for home-use medical devices is growing rapidly.

Individuals with chronic diseases, who require long-term home monitoring and self-management, constitute one of the primary user groups for home medical devices. Driven by trends such as population aging, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases among younger demographics, and the transformation of critical illnesses into chronic conditions, the expansion of the chronic disease population has become inevitable, directly fueling growth in the home medical device market.

With the growing public health awareness, particularly driven by the prolonged experience of staying at home in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the public’s consciousness to equip their families with appropriate medical devices and master their usage for effective self-management.

During this process, consumers are increasingly developing the habit of purchasing home-use medical devices through online channels.Data from the “2023 Insights into Consumer Trends in Home-Based Diagnosis and Treatment,” released by the AliHealth Research Institute and Tmall Health, shows that two-thirds of health e-commerce users have purchased home-use medical devices.

From the supply side, medical device manufacturers and e-commerce platforms are expanding their online sales volume to meet user demand.According to data released by the National Medical Products Administration, the number of enterprises engaged in online sales of medical devices across China grew rapidly from 118,000 in 2020 to 289,000 in 2023, while the number of third-party platforms increased from 350 in 2020 to 719 in 2023.

Status of Medical Device E-commerce Enterprises in Recent Years. Data Source: National Medical Products Administration; Chart by VCBeat

Another major market trend is the rapid rise of live-streaming e-commerce in recent years, driven by the integrated development of e-commerce and live streaming, with its influence quickly extending across various retail sectors. Live-streaming e-commerce has also penetrated the medical device sector, becoming an indispensable component of online medical device sales.

Currently, medical device companies—ranging from those specializing in health monitoring and home care to those producing medical-grade facial masks—are actively expanding into live-streaming e-commerce. For instance, Cofoe Medical has integrated multiple marketing strategies, including influencer recommendations, brand-led live streams, O2O traffic generation from pharmacies, and offline promotional campaigns, to enhance brand visibility and user engagement. Sinocare has established a comprehensive live-streaming matrix across platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, WeChat, and Douyin, leveraging both self-operated broadcasts and collaborations with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) for brand marketing. Meanwhile, the e-commerce division of Intco Medical is strengthening its expansion into new media and channels, primarily focusing on Douyin for live streaming and operating under a model that combines self-operated broadcasts, influencer-led streams, short videos, and marketplace operations.

Regarding platforms, social media platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou are gradually relaxing their rules for collaboration on medical devices, expanding the supply of medical devices on their platforms to better meet user demands.

Taking Douyin as an example, the platform has evolved from its initial invitation-only “Targeted Enterprise Whitelist” cooperation model in 2022, to allowing brands to independently apply for store openings, and further iterated to the “Influencer Access Whitelist” in the first half of 2024. This latest model permits qualified influencers to sell medical device products via live streaming or short videos.

The evolution of user demands and sales channels has brought new opportunities to medical device companies, but also posed challenges to the establishment of their precision marketing systems.Historically, the traditional marketing model for medical devices was monolithic, and its highly specialized nature often created a sense of distance for users. Many were unaware of how these products could improve health and quality of life, or lacked clarity on the specific ways they could do so. In recent years, companies have gradually begun to explore new marketing approaches; however, these efforts have largely been fragmented and lack a systematic framework.

Against this backdrop, Knowledge Matrix has keenly seized market opportunities, leveraging its marketing and service capabilities in the general health sector in recent years to rapidly expand into live-streaming e-commerce for medical devices.Provide influencer live-streaming collaborations and a suite of live-streaming marketing solutions for flagship stores, self-operated stores, and specialty stores, empowering medical device enterprises to build precise marketing systems.

“Live streaming rooms can demonstrate the complete usage process of medical devices, address users’ questions regarding their use, and deliver a positive user experience. Provided that regulatory compliance is maintained, medical devices are a category well-suited for live-streamed sales,” Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui) told VCBeat. Through its knowledge matrix initiatives, VCBeat has learned from discussions with medical device companies that they generally hold a positive attitude toward live-stream e-commerce. They aim to establish a multi-store matrix comprising flagship stores, self-operated stores, specialty stores, and authorized dealerships, thereby gaining greater traffic exposure and more opportunities for live-streamed promotions.

Since the launch of live-streaming marketing for medical devices, the Knowledge Matrix has helped medical device brands complete multiple high-quality live streams.

Knowledge Matrix: A Female Health IP (5M+ Followers Across All Platforms) Ranks on Douyin’s Pelvic Floor Muscle Repair Device Livestream Sales Chart

Taking Douyin as an example, during this year’s 618 shopping festival, a female health IP within the knowledge matrix (with over 5 million followers across all platforms) frequently gained traction on DouyinNo. 1 on the “Real-Time Medical Device Live-Streaming Sales Leaderboard”, the single-session GMV for a certain brand’s pelvic floor rehabilitation device sold via its live-streaming e-commerce channel exceeded RMB 5.25 million, with same-day sales surpassing RMB 7 million. Multiple other IPs under the Knowledge Matrix portfolio in the women’s health, pregnancy and childbirth, and maternal-and-child sectors have repeatedly ranked first on the non-brand live-streaming sales leaderboard for medical devices.

So, How Is a High-Quality Medical Device Livestream Crafted?

It is not difficult to observe that the consumption of medical devices has its unique characteristics. Users face a certain threshold in understanding product functions and principles, leading to a prolonged purchase decision cycle. According to the “2024 White Paper on Marketing in the Big Health Industry” released by VCBeat and Sina Weibo, approximately 74.2% of surveyed users in the home medical device sector require at least one week to make a purchase decision. However, authentic expert interpretations, along with usage shares from industry influencers and key opinion leaders (KOLs), can provide direct demonstrations of product efficacy, thereby garnering greater resonance and trust among users.

VCBeat & Sina Weibo "2024 White Paper on Marketing in the Big Health Industry"

From this perspective, health influencers with strong fan stickiness in specialized professional niches who conduct live streams or short-video explanations can facilitate user decision-making to a certain extent, representing a key element of high-quality live streaming.“Typically, health influencers generate significantly higher traffic than brand flagship stores, and influencer-led livestreams can effectively complement brand-led livestreams,” said Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui).

Of course, the above merely covers the live broadcast itself; in light of the specific characteristics of medical device products, the knowledge matrix must also carry out a series of rigorous tasks prior to the broadcast, including strict product selection, quality and safety assurance, professional content training, and risk management.

In terms of product selection, the knowledge matrix ensures product quality at the source, with the medical team overseeing the quality of selected products.

“Regarding medical devices specifically, it is necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of the device registration documents or filing materials, clinical trials, and relevant literature, so as to analyze the product’s functions and its role in disease intervention—for example, whether it is used for treatment, adjunctive therapy, or symptom relief,” introduced Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui). These aspects are not only related to product quality but also directly determine the accuracy and professionalism of subsequent presentations in live-streaming sessions.

While mastering the above content,Health influencers incubated and partnered with through the knowledge matrix, who possess professional backgrounds (such as extensive experience in postpartum rehabilitation), are better positioned to collaborate with brand R&D teams to create content that closely aligns with consumer needs.。Meanwhile, Knowledge Matrix has established close and in-depth collaborations with all major live-streaming platforms to stay abreast of the latest platform rules in real time and refine its live-streaming strategies.

Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui) also highlighted the Knowledge Matrix’s requirements for medical device brand owners, stipulating that partner enterprises and products must align with corresponding credit and compliance systems. Customer service operations at brand flagship stores must also meet the Knowledge Matrix’s standards in terms of response time and professionalism, thereby ensuring a positive user experience and safeguarding the reputation of key opinion leaders (KOLs).

Overall,Knowledge Matrix provides medical device enterprises with a comprehensive, high-efficiency conversion solution. It leverages influencer live streaming to drive sales conversions for medical device brands, while ensuring quality and safety controls across all aspects of products and live broadcasts, thereby safeguarding the interests of users, health influencers, and platforms.

Knowledge Matrix was able to rapidly achieve breakthroughs in the live-streaming e-commerce sector for medical devices, not only due to meticulous product selection and careful polishing of each live broadcast, but also because the company had already accumulated substantial expertise in precision marketing within the broader health industry.

Since its establishment in 2020, Knowledge Matrix has incubated numerous health influencers and collaborated with experts in specialized fields, producing a substantial volume of high-quality medical content within the broader health sector. It is reported that Knowledge Matrix produces over 50,000 videos annually, with annual video views exceeding 20 billion. In 2023 alone, it created 308 videos that each garnered over 10 million views.

Professional content production has enabled the knowledge matrix to accumulate a deep understanding of various health and wellness products, which is crucial for medical devices that emphasize the user experience, require accurate identification of product highlights, and demand precise descriptions of product functions.

Leveraging high-quality professional content, the Knowledge Matrix has accumulated a substantial user base focused on specific diseases or health issues, even down to users interested in particular product categories. Currently, the total follower count of IP partners in the general health sector within the Knowledge Matrix stands at 350 million, while self-incubated IPs have amassed 70 million followers. Approximately 30 million followers are directly and strongly related to the medical device category, covering multiple popular fields such as pediatrics, maternity care, women's health, and health for the middle-aged and elderly.

With growing content operation experience, sustained fan engagement, and data analytics, the knowledge matrix has developed keen insights into the needs of medical device users.

Social media platforms are gradually relaxing their overall rules for the sale of medical devices, but cooperation details continue to be updated periodically under the premise of safety and compliance. Taking Douyin as an example, a search for “medical devices” in the “Douyin E-commerce Learning Center” reveals that, in addition to the significant changes in cooperation rules mentioned earlier, new category management standards, merchant management standards, and category promotion guidelines are continually being released.

Latest Rules for Medical Devices on Douyin E-commerce

The Knowledge Matrix has maintained continuous monitoring and understanding of topics ranging from macro-level e-commerce policies for medical devices to micro-level updates on platform collaboration details, thereby ensuring comprehensive compliance across all levels.

To date, Knowledge Matrix has established strategic partnerships with over 1,000 leading health and wellness brands, driving cumulative targeted product exposures exceeding 1 billion impressions and generating more than RMB 500 million in GMV growth for its partner enterprises. In summary,Through its ongoing service to health and wellness enterprises, Knowledge Matrix has established methodologies for precision marketing across various sub-sectors of the industry.

Among these initiatives, Knowledge Matrix has developed the “K6 Model” specifically for pharmaceutical marketing. Centered on products, this model generates high-quality content and constructs comprehensive marketing scenarios to fully support pharmaceutical companies in their digital transformation. First, it identifies core consumer groups based on product attributes, categorizes platforms and consumption scenarios, and formulates targeted outreach strategies. Second, it leverages precisely matched multi-tier Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to deeply influence users, creates viral content tailored to the characteristics of core consumers to stimulate search interest, and then directs traffic to e-commerce platforms, thereby boosting sales conversion across the entire online ecosystem. Finally, by capturing and analyzing user profiles from both on-platform and off-platform traffic, the model continuously optimizes strategies to ensure the sustainable development of digital marketing. Based on this model, Knowledge Matrix has partnered with over one hundred pharmaceutical companies in the field of precision pharmaceutical marketing.

The K6 Marketing Model of the Knowledge Matrix

Compared with the marketing of pharmaceuticals and other general health products, medical device marketing exhibits numerous differences; however, they share consistent underlying logic in terms of professionalism and accuracy, as well as a common philosophy oriented toward users’ health needs. Therefore,These validated methodologies can be refined and adapted for medical device marketing, enabling rapid translation from strategy to practical execution.

As the marketing landscape evolves, home-use medical device products are undergoing a new wave of transformation: to meet the usage demands driven by the trend toward a younger user base, companies are launching product lines characterized by portability and compactness. Medical devices are also exhibiting a “consumer appliance-like” trend, with enterprises placing greater emphasis on creating an overall home-friendly ambiance to lower consumers’ psychological barriers to purchase, thereby shifting the perception of these products from “professional equipment” to “small household appliances.” Meanwhile, the intelligence level of home-use medical devices continues to improve, with product functions evolving from single-parameter monitoring to comprehensive health management.

Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui) believes that the proportion of online sales of home medical devices will continue to rise, and the growth of online product categories will also accelerate. Live streaming e-commerce will become a preferred format for more social platforms and medical device companies. As live streaming e-commerce develops further, medical devices will become products with stronger consumer attributes. “Live streaming e-commerce has narrowed the distance between medical device companies and consumers, prompting companies to focus not only on product functionality but also on consumer perception and experience, and even to improve product design.”

It is not difficult to see that,Amid the transformation of medical device products and marketing, health ecosystem operation service providers represented by knowledge matrices will continue to play a linking and catalytic role.Ding Zhaoliang (Danggui) stated that the Knowledge Matrix will incubate more professional influencers, deepen expertise in content and live streaming, and rapidly expand collaborations with medical device companies to seize early-mover advantages amid market transformation.