Dingzhi Aesthetics Files IPO: Building an All-in-One Platform for Aesthetic Medicine Education and Management Solutions

For a long time, the public’s perception of the medical aesthetics industry has been largely defined by labels such as “exorbitant profits” and “high market potential.” Driven by this perception and the overall expansion of the market size, an increasing number of individuals have chosen to enter the medical aesthetics sector in recent years.

However, amid market development, a seemingly paradoxical phenomenon has gradually drawn public attention. On the one hand, enthusiasm among new entrants remains high; although the rate of new medical aesthetic institutions has slowed in the past two years, the overall number continues to grow. On the other hand, a wave of closures has swept through the industry with significant impact. According to data from Qichacha, 1,413 medical aesthetic-related enterprises had their licenses revoked or were deregistered in the first half of 2021 alone, with small and medium-sized medical aesthetic institutions accounting for a substantial proportion.

In fact, the emergence of this phenomenon does not mean that new entrants in the medical aesthetics industry are destined to leave with regret; rather, it is an inevitable path toward good money driving out bad. In an increasingly competitive market, medical aesthetics institutions that fail to manage their operations reasonably and accurately discern customer needs are bound to exit the stage.

However, as the saying goes, “easier said than done.” Although medical aesthetics practitioners understand that rational operations, customer acquisition, and cost reduction with efficiency improvement are essential to adapt to market changes, how to concretely achieve these goals remains a significant challenge for many professionals in the field.

It is against this backdrop that Shanghai Keyuan Network Technology Co., Ltd. (brand name “Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics”) was established. As a knowledge-sharing and educational platform tailored for medical aesthetics practitioners, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has been dedicated since its inception to helping medical aesthetics institutions and their managers address the challenges of operational and management complexities. In this article, VCBeat engages in a dialogue with Wang Jianzhong, founder of Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics, to gain an in-depth understanding of the business ecosystem the company has cultivated over years of operation, as well as the underlying logic driving its business development.

In recent years, numerous observers and practitioners in the medical aesthetics industry have commonly described this rapidly expanding market as the “explosive beauty economy.”

According to data from iResearch, the number of medical aesthetics users in China reached 13.672 million in 2019, and is projected to exceed 25 million in 2023, nearly doubling in four years.

The continuous expansion of demand has created significant growth potential for the medical aesthetics industry, attracting numerous companies to enter the market. However, for businesses operating in this sector, particularly downstream medical aesthetics clinics, high customer acquisition costs and substantial marketing expenditures are undeniable realities.

Consequently, with a multitude of market participants, the medical aesthetics industry is experiencing intensifying “involution,” which has driven up operating costs for many institutions. This environment makes it increasingly difficult for enterprises that adhere to short-termism or neglect standardized management and operational practices to survive.

This phenomenon has also been observed by Wang Jianzhong, who brings years of marketing management experience in the medical aesthetics industry. “Compared with many mature industries, the operational management of numerous enterprises and institutions in the medical aesthetics sector is neither sufficiently standardized nor effective.”

Behind this lies an indirect reflection of the long-standing unchecked growth in the medical aesthetics industry, as well as the insufficient operational and management capabilities among some practitioners. On one hand, the increasingly fierce competition has heightened the sense of crisis and competitive pressure for traditional medical aesthetics providers; on the other hand, it has prompted capable and forward-thinking management talents within the industry to seek out diverse avenues for learning and self-improvement.

Against this backdrop, Wang Jianzhong decided to create a knowledge platform designed to help more medical aesthetics practitioners enhance their enterprise management and operational capabilities. His goal was to explore a talent development system for medical aesthetics management that could adapt to the current market environment and address the industry’s prevalent issue of extensive, rather than intensive, management practices. Thus, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics was born.

From the perspective of knowledge dissemination, knowledge platforms targeting professionals in the medical aesthetics industry can be broadly categorized into skill-based knowledge platforms and business management knowledge platforms, with Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics falling into the latter category.

Unlike skill-training platforms designed for physicians, the operational and management system of a medical aesthetics enterprise is itself a complex, vast, and organic ecosystem that is by no means static. Consequently, building a knowledge platform for operations and management places exceptionally high demands on the founders’ own accumulation of industry experience and personal capabilities.

As a seasoned practitioner with over a decade of experience in the medical aesthetics industry, Wang Jianzhong held marketing and management roles at renowned medical aesthetics institutions such as Shanghai Reik and Phidau before founding Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics. His extensive industry experience has enabled him to accumulate a substantial network of physician experts and key opinion leaders. Leveraging these resources, he launched the core knowledge offerings of Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics—professional courses tailored for the medical aesthetics industry.

According to Wang Jianzhong, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has launched nearly 3,000 online courses since its establishment, covering topics including but not limited to the operation of medical aesthetic institutions, dissemination of management experience, and skill instruction. Leveraging its continuous output of professional course content, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has currently attracted over 100,000 followers.

As its course-based business system has gradually matured, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has been continuously exploring diverse content delivery methods and launched the Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics Bookstore—a specialized platform for medical aesthetics literature. This is the first platform in China dedicated to developing resources in this niche field. The emergence of this platform has not only provided a more stable and unified channel for disseminating professional medical aesthetics content but also significantly lowered the barrier for industry professionals to access learning materials. Consequently, the platform has garnered widespread support and recommendations from industry experts since its launch.

Since its inception, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has been committed to helping more medical aesthetics practitioners enhance their management capabilities. In today’s healthcare industry, physician entrepreneurship has become a prevailing trend, a phenomenon equally prevalent in the medical aesthetics sector. However, despite possessing strong clinical expertise, physicians often face significant shortcomings in enterprise management and marketing-driven customer acquisition.

To this end, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has leveraged its accumulated consulting experience to launch physician IP development services tailored for doctors. By crafting personalized strategies based on each physician’s individual style and specialized skills, the company helps address common challenges such as insufficient understanding of intellectual property (IP) branding and difficulties in formulating IP strategies. To date, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has completed IP consulting and development services for nearly 100 physicians.

It is evident that, with the continuous expansion of service offerings and the ongoing refinement of its business ecosystem, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has evolved from its initial role as a knowledge-dissemination platform into a comprehensive one-stop solution provider for the medical aesthetics industry. The company’s growing accumulation of industrial resources has laid a solid foundation for its subsequent development of full-industry-chain integrated services.

Continuous business expansion and the accumulation of industry resources have also drawn attention to Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics from upstream players in the industry.

For upstream companies, the need for product promotion and marketing has always existed. The accumulated resources of Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics can undoubtedly provide an effective digital marketing pathway for upstream companies’ product promotion. Driven by this trend, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has gradually become a digital marketing platform for many upstream medical aesthetics enterprises.

From initial courses to current industry linkages, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics has continuously explored a broader range of viable business opportunities by accumulating core industry expert resources, thereby establishing the extensive service matrix it boasts today.

Regarding future development, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics also has a clear roadmap. It is understood that Dingzhi Medical is currently piloting a one-stop service platform for dermatology talent, leveraging its accumulated pool of professional physicians to rapidly meet the demand for specialized medical talent from aesthetic medicine institutions, thereby better driving industry growth. Looking ahead, Dingzhi Medical Aesthetics will continue to provide aesthetic medicine enterprises and practitioners with enhanced management insights and experience, creating greater value.