Southern Health: Building a Full-Media Platform for Health Science Communication and Empowering the Upgrade of the Health Industry through Health IPs

Do you remember those days when you learned the “seven-step handwashing technique” from doctors, exercised at home with fitness experts, and planned your meals with nutrition specialists?

The COVID-19 pandemic has unprecedentedly heightened public awareness of health, prompting a gradual shift from a “disease-centered” to a “health-centered” paradigm. Health science popularization has become one of the key channels through which people acquire health knowledge.

While the surge in traffic within the health sector during the pandemic may recede, health awareness, once awakened, will remain at a high level for the long term. In the aftermath of the storm, the broader health industry is entering a new phase of development, with public health education stepping into an “era of universal demand.” This presents both opportunities and challenges for numerous MCN agencies specializing in health science communication.

In just three years since its inception, this startup has incubated and developed over 1,000 prominent health-focused intellectual property (IP) personalities, produced more than 40,000 short-form videos for health science popularization, and created over 30,000 original illustrated articles on health education. Its content has amassed more than 33 billion views across all online platforms, garnering a total health-focused follower base exceeding 200 million.

What was the original intention behind choosing the health science popularization track? How can one rapidly build a health-focused intellectual property (IP)? To find answers to these two questions, VCBeat interviewed Fu Quan, Founder and CEO of Nanfang Health.

Fu Quan was born in Urumqi, Xinjiang, to parents who were educated youth cadres supporting border development. Influenced by a family environment steeped in the spirit of “dedication and altruism,” Fu Quan harbored great enthusiasm from a young age and aspired to make significant contributions to his country and society.

Fu Quan excelled academically from a young age, winning First Prize in the National Biology Olympiad during high school and gaining guaranteed admission to Wuhan University. After graduation, he worked as a neurosurgeon. Witnessing numerous patients who had striven hard yet suffered greatly from illness, he gradually came to realize that “the superior physician treats disease before it arises,” emphasizing that healing the mind precedes healing the body. By promoting health literacy and preventive care, he aims to help those who have dedicated themselves to their careers preserve their health.

Later, after witnessing a medical disturbance incident in which the hospital lobby was transformed into a mourning hall by patients’ families, Fu Quan became more acutely aware of the severe information asymmetry between doctors and patients. He sought to bridge this gap through health science popularization, thereby finding an effective way to alleviate doctor-patient conflicts.

Fu Quan, founder of Nanfang Health. Photo provided by Nanfang Health

In June 2018, Fu Quan founded “Nanfang Health,” steadfastly upholding the mission and original aspiration to “ensure that those who have strived in life do not lose their health,” jointly advancing health science popularization and enhancing the health literacy of the Chinese population.

One year after its founding, Southern Health, with the vision of “making health-focused intellectual property resonate in every corner of the world,” became a new media co-organizer for the First Health Science Popularization Competition hosted by People’s Daily Online. In the same year, founder Fu Quan was invited to attend the 2019 Annual Conference on the Development and Research of National Higher Medical Education Textbooks and the Expert Advisory Committee of People’s Medical Publishing House, where he shared insights on knowledge monetization in the broader health industry.

Subsequently, Nanfang Health received investment from MiraclePlus, founded by Dr. Qi Lu, former President of Baidu. In May 2021, Fu Quan was appointed as a Director of the China Advertising Association. In September 2021, he was appointed as an Executive Director of the Professional Committee on Medical Communication under the Chinese Research Hospital Association.

Sincerity splits stone. Under the leadership of Fu Quan, Southern Health’s team of over 100 elite members has forged ahead with vigor, propelling Southern Health to become China’s largest health-focused IP and omni-media matrix. It has repeatedly ranked first in the health vertical on new media platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat Channels. To date, it has signed nearly 1,000 health science communicators, comprising physicians from Grade A tertiary hospitals, registered dietitians, health managers, fitness coaches, and health product R&D specialists.

Nanfang Health Explores Effective Pathways for Health Communication in the New Era of Media Convergence, Witnesses the Growth and Development of the Health Science Popularization Content Ecosystem, and Facilitates the Upgrading of the Health Industry.

From the perspective of the overall health management system, when divided by the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, healthcare lies at the downstream end, while the true upstream component is the popularization of health knowledge, which reduces disease incidence at its source.

In an interview with VCBeat, Fu Quan provided a detailed breakdown of health science popularization. He noted that science popularization is, at its core, information. Wherever there is information, there are inevitably both demanders and suppliers. The mission of Nanfang Health is to “optimize supply and meet demand,” ensuring that everyone who should or needs to access health knowledge can obtain the information they seek.

Furthermore, the essence of health science popularization lies in effective health communication. Within the realm of “communication,” Fu Quan deconstructs it into two dimensions: “science” and “popularization.” “Science” signifies accuracy and authority, while “popularization” denotes being engaging and useful. Upstream of “science” is education, and downstream of “popularization” is entertainment. Thus, the core of science popularization is to achieve “edutainment.”

“The concept of ‘health’ can be divided into two forms: one is ‘psychosomatic health,’ and the other is ‘somatic-mental health.’”The former refers to physical issues triggered by psychological factors, such as insomnia and hair loss among young people due to work-related anxiety; the latter involves psychological problems arising from organic diseases, such as the depressive symptoms commonly observed in elderly patients with malignant tumors.

Based on health science popularization content, Nanfang Health can be categorized into four dimensions according to the characteristics and severity of content creators’ performance: “High Science, High Popularization,” “High Science, Low Popularization,” “Low Science, High Popularization,” and “Low Science, Low Popularization.”

For content creators focusing on “heavy science,” it is essential to leverage the latest forms of content dissemination to produce popular science works that are more accessible and down-to-earth. For those focusing on “heavy popularity,” it is necessary to seek out and cite the latest research findings from authoritative academic institutions to create more professional and authoritative content. This approach ensures that health popularization “connects with high-level expertise while remaining grounded in everyday reality,” truly enabling scientific knowledge to achieve broad communicability and popular knowledge to maintain scientific professionalism.

To achieve "edutainment"-style health science popularization, Nanfang Health has established business segments for traffic growth, influencer management, integrated marketing, and supply chain operations.. The traffic growth segment is housed at the Wuhan Operations Center, which involves the incubation, development, and training of content creators in health-focused verticals.

Among the influencers signed by Nanfang Health, content creators in the “professional” category are mostly seasoned health experts, including authoritative medical specialists and registered dietitians, while those in the “popular science” category are more dynamic and youthful.

The business system for influencer management, covering influencer activities and organizational work, is based in Beijing to drive health influencers’ participation in events and enhance brand influence. The integrated marketing business system is based in Shanghai and Hangzhou to benefit the public through creators while delivering high-quality services and products to their followers.

Southern Health has launched a new product supply chain division, focusing on developing high-quality product solutions for stress-induced obesity and anxiety-related insomnia. By leveraging IP development to drive market growth for these products, the company aims not only to expand the reach of premium offerings across the province and throughout China but also to propel domestic “Guochao” brands onto the global stage.

Fu Quan stated, “In the course of this three-step process, relying solely on our own resources would inevitably leave us underpowered. Therefore, we have partnered with the health and wellness segments of more than 20 local traditional broadcasting and television media outlets across China, integrating health-focused intellectual property (IP) content with traffic flows, breaking down the barriers between ‘large screens’ and ‘small screens,’ and empowering communication within the broader health and wellness industry.”

With sound communication concepts and authoritative science-based health knowledge, the paramount priority becomes how to effectively disseminate such information. To leverage new media channels and enable media platforms and users to access these health education materials more quickly and conveniently, Nanfang Health has made proactive attempts and innovations in two key areas.

First, dataRegarding big data and algorithmic recommendations, Nanfang Health extracted over 300,000 viral audio-visual science popularization works from across the internet, applied digital technologies for semantic recognition and tagging, and ultimately established a comprehensive database system known as the “Four Treasuries,” comprising the Content Library, Format Library, IP Library, and Industry Library.

Meanwhile, the company has independently developed MedPopData, an AI-powered intelligent content production platform that leverages digital technologies to assist in content creation. By visually presenting content through five key metrics—Influence Index, Viral Potential Index, Engagement Index, Growth Index, and IP Strength Index—the platform establishes a comprehensive methodology for producing viral content. This empowers health influencers to rapidly gain insights into user needs and create higher-quality popular science works.

Second, Technology. Southern Health leverages audio-visual technology to empower the dissemination of popular science content, extracting the most popular anime elements to create “Jing Xiaobai,” the first 2D+3D animated virtual IP figure in the field of health science communication.

This virtual character integrates VR and AR technologies, featuring a lifelike appearance that vividly brings complex popular science concepts to life, making health education content more engaging, entertaining, and easier to disseminate. Furthermore, Nanfang Health is exploring the production of live-streamed micro-variety shows focused on health education, aligning more closely with the latest trends in media dissemination.

Whether through dedicated content creation during the pandemic or the steady accumulation of momentum, Southern Health has grown over the past three years into a leading authority in vertical health science popularization within the industry. It has received nearly 20 honors and awards, including being named one of the “Top Ten Nationwide” in the National Health Commission’s New Era Health Science Popularization Competition, winning “Best Short-Video Creator” at the 7th National Audio-Visual Conference, serving as the new media co-organizer for People’s Daily Online’s inaugural Health Science Popularization Competition, and being recognized as the “Annual Innovative Breakthrough MCN” at the 2020 New Rank Conference.

When discussing the future plans of Southern Health, Fu Quan stated“In the first phase, we aim to achieve stable and sustained growth. In the second phase, guided by national development trends and policies, we hope to actively explore more commercialization pathways within the social marketing dimension of the broader health industry, helping health influencers generate income in a reasonable and compliant manner.”

“‘Approach health with the right attitude’ is our shared philosophy, ‘ensuring that everyone who has strived in life does not lose their health’ is our shared mission, and ‘making influential health IPs resonate in every corner of the world’ is our shared vision. Only by truly rooting ourselves in healthy living and creating practical, beneficial content for the public can we imbue the health content ecosystem with greater vitality, appeal, and influence,” Fu Quan added.

In the long run, Nanfang Health aims to integrate high-quality products with services, deeply merge industry with media, and tightly bind strong IPs, substantial traffic, quality products, and excellent services, thereby driving the development of local health industries—transforming local initiatives into national ones, and Chinese endeavors into global ones.

Vigorously promoting health science popularization is one of the 15 major special actions outlined in the “Healthy China Action (2019–2030)” and represents a significant measure in the national policy shift from a treatment-centered approach to a people’s health-centered approach.

Nanfang Health will continuously pioneer and innovate a new regional model of “Internet + Health IP + Precision Health Science Communication,” creating scientific yet artistic health education content that is easy to disseminate. By actively engaging in open collaboration with all sectors of society and leveraging the influence of key opinion leaders in science communication, Nanfang Health aims to drive the comprehensive upgrading of the broader health industry.