Soyoung Secures Internet Hospital License, Signaling Ambition in Greater Healthcare Market
On September 16, 2020, Chengdu SoYoung Internet Hospital officially obtained its “Medical Institution Practice License,” making SoYoung Technology one of the first companies to secure an internet hospital license in Chengdu.
It is reported that the launch of Chengdu SoYoung Internet Hospital will mark a key step in SoYoung’s expansion into the broader healthcare sector. In fact, SoYoung Technology had already obtained the business license for its internet hospital as early as March 24 this year, revealing its initial ambitions to map out a comprehensive healthcare landscape. Jin Xing, Chairman and CEO of SoYoung Technology, has publicly stated, “SoYoung ultimately aims to become a comprehensive internet healthcare platform.”
It is reported that the registered capital of Chengdu SoYoung Internet Hospital reaches RMB 100 million, with departments including plastic surgery, dermatology, medical aesthetics, dentistry, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, and traditional Chinese medicine. The services offered by these seven departments extend into the realm of serious medical care, which currently enjoys a high degree of marketization in China. This indicates that SoYoung Technology, having cultivated the medical aesthetics industry for many years, aims to expand beyond this sector into the broader healthcare and wellness field.
Riding the wave of the internet to enter the consumer healthcare sector is, for the entire industry, an endeavor that is both “unfamiliar and familiar.” In recent years, specialized hospitals in fields such as medical aesthetics and dentistry have achieved sustained growth by expanding into online channels, while other hospitals and internet companies have entered the market by establishing general-purpose internet hospitals. However, on a macro level, the consumer healthcare sector has long lacked the emergence of high-caliber, high-efficiency internet platforms.
However, formal and high-quality consumer healthcare platforms are currently a “must-have” in the market. As standardized medical services, specialties such as plastic surgery, dentistry, and ophthalmology exhibit more market-oriented characteristics compared to other hospital departments, with users demonstrating higher consumption frequency and greater spending power. Meanwhile, due to relatively low entry barriers, illicit practices such as unlicensed aesthetic clinics and illegal dental offices are rampant in the consumer healthcare sector. This not only hinders consumers’ ability to make informed decisions but also poses significant threats to their health.
How Large Is China’s Consumer Healthcare Market? According to forecasts by Frost & Sullivan, a renowned international market research firm, the total revenue of China’s medical aesthetics industry will reach RMB 150 billion in 2020. The market size of the dental sector has also exceeded RMB 100 billion, with 250 million patient visits annually. In 2019, China’s ophthalmology market reached RMB 170 billion and is expected to continue growing at an annual rate of 13%–15% over the next five years. Additionally, driven by the relaxation of the two-child policy, China’s obstetrics and gynecology healthcare services market is projected to reach nearly RMB 650 billion by 2021.
China’s consumer healthcare market has immense room for expansion; benchmarked against U.S. levels, there is still a 7.6-fold growth potential. Therefore, building a high-quality consumer healthcare platform holds significant importance for both the industry and consumers. SoYoung precisely targeted this market demand by entering the consumer healthcare sector.
Regarding So-Young’s development pace, Jin Xing has a clear plan: “Medical aesthetics is So-Young’s entry point into the healthcare sector. In the future, we will gradually expand into more medical fields and further promote the So-Young model.”
Chengdu SoYoung Internet Hospital represents SoYoung’s implementation of its supply chain information service capabilities, leveraging its integrated informational and resource advantages. This innovation in health service delivery will extend the benefits of “Internet + Healthcare” to a broader population.
The advent of So-Young has brought changes to the consumer healthcare industry that extend beyond service delivery methods and efficiency, fostering an ecosystem better suited to the industry’s development.
SoYoung Internet Hospital Establishes Presence in the “Capital of Medical Aesthetics,” Effectively Integrating SoYoung’s Platform Resources with Local Medical Aesthetic Resources in Chengdu to Support Plastic Surgery, Dermatology, and Medical Cosmetology Departments. This initiative will not only benefit beauty seekers in Chengdu but also extend advantages to the tens of millions of users on the SoYoung platform. For physicians, going online enables access to a broader patient base and further reduces customer acquisition costs per unit of time through tools such as video consultations, SoYoung Live, and the SoYoung Physician Account backend. Additionally, the activation of online prescription privileges will significantly enhance physicians’ service efficiency.
On this basis, Chengdu So-Young Internet Hospital can leverage its “Internet + Healthcare” platform to provide patients with services such as appointment scheduling, online consultations, and doctor-patient interactions.
Amid the rapid growth of the consumer healthcare market, which urgently requires standardization, the emergence of Chengdu So-Young Internet Hospital will foster closer connections and deeper trust between patients and healthcare providers.
Simply put, So-Young aims to build an “Internet + Healthcare” ecosystem that integrates online and offline services and covers a wide range of consumer healthcare sectors.
Supported by advanced technology, the effective utilization of data generated through platform management enables the provision of compassionate clinical services. Specifically, users of the So-Young Internet Hospital now enjoy a more convenient consultation experience. With just a smartphone, patients can engage in face-to-face video consultations with physicians, significantly reducing the burden of travel and alleviating long-standing issues such as prolonged waiting times and brief consultation durations. Furthermore, patients’ scope for decision-making has been substantially expanded. For instance, enabled by video consultations, physicians at the Chengdu So-Young Internet Hospital can provide professional medical advice to users across the entire platform. Live streaming will serve as a primary tool for building strong personal brands for outstanding physicians at the Chengdu So-Young Internet Hospital, allowing them to disseminate specialized medical knowledge. Meanwhile, AI-powered mini-tools, represented by “Magic Mirror Facial Analysis” and “Skin Detection,” cater to the diverse decision-making needs of aesthetic seekers at critical stages before, during, and after procedures.
Qu Fang, Vice President of So-Young Technology, cited oculoplastic surgery as an example to illustrate these changes to reporters. She stated that patients must make careful decisions regarding oculoplastic procedures and tend to choose higher-quality institutions for their surgeries. In the past, patients were generally limited to selecting from a few local providers. However, under the internet healthcare model, patients can consult with doctors at multiple institutions across different regions to discuss treatment plans before making a decision, which will significantly enhance the quality of consumer healthcare services.
In addition to bringing convenience to patients, doctors can also “benefit” from it. On the one hand, doctors can more selectively choose areas of their expertise for consultations based on patients’ descriptions, thereby improving service quality and accumulating experience; on the other hand, thanks to the improved efficiency of internet healthcare, doctors can also increase their patient volume, thus maximizing their personal value.
Zhu Yuanfu, Director of the Health Industry Promotion Service Center in Wenjiang District, Chengdu, and Director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of the Health Industry Functional Zone, stated: “SoYoung Internet Hospital empowers high-quality medical resources through internet and big data technologies. By leveraging data analytics, it promptly pushes information to hospitals and physicians providing patient care, enabling timely multi-channel interventions. This approach allows data to do the legwork, reducing the need for patients to travel, while enabling physicians to serve more patients within the same timeframe. This represents a win-win scenario for both the efficiency and quality of medical resource allocation.”