China Mobile-Backed Lianren Health Files IPO Prospectus to Reshape Healthcare Big Data Landscape

The history of human development is, in essence, the history of information development. From knot-tying for record-keeping and parchment-based historical archives to the limited disk storage of early standalone computers and today’s data centers spanning hundreds of hectares, every transformation in data storage methods has constituted a transformation in human modes of production.

In this process, the depth of data understanding determines the extent of productivity transformation. EY mentioned such a formula in its "Life Sciences 4.0" report: FV=I^DIn this framework, the base “I” stands for Innovation, while the exponent “D” represents Data. In other words, future value will be driven by innovation as its core object and powered by data as its driving force. In this process, innovation determines the starting point of value, whereas data dictates the rate of value growth.

Although the life sciences have long entered the era of big data, the “big” currently refers only to volume—we have yet to fully unlock the value embedded within these data. As future value becomes contingent upon data utilization, capabilities in data mining, analysis, and operations have become an urgent necessity. This is one of the key reasons behind the establishment of LIANREN Digital Health.

LIANREN Digital Health, fully named LIANREN Digital Health Medical Big Data Technology Co., Ltd., was initiated and established under the leadership of China Mobile in June 2017 with the support and guidance of the National Health Commission. The company completed its industrial and commercial registration on November 18, 2019, headquartered in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and officially commenced operations on April 8 this year.

LIANREN Digital Health is jointly held by eight entities, including China Mobile, China Pacific Insurance, Jinan International Medical Center Industrial Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai Pudong Investment Holdings Sci-Tech Innovation Fund, Bank of Communications, Inspur Group, Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, and Jiahua Meikang. This model pioneered the “central state-owned enterprise-led investment, with joint participation from local governments, financial institutions, and healthcare IT companies” approach in China. It stands as a representative health and medical big data industrial group in China, characterized by state-owned capital dominance and market-oriented mechanisms.

Furthermore, LIANREN Digital Health has assembled a large cohort of top-tier talent from various industries. Take Chairman Dai Zhong as an example: a veteran of the telecommunications sector, he joined the Beijing Wireless Communications Bureau (the predecessor of China Mobile) upon his graduation in 1991. With nearly three decades of deep roots in the industry, he has personally witnessed its evolution from CT (Communications Technology) and IT (Information Technology) to DT (Data Technology).

Dai Zhong, Chairman of LIANREN Digital Health

Regarding the company’s name, Dai Zhong told VCBeat, “‘Lianren’ signifies joining hands in unity and sharing a benevolent, like-minded spirit.” In practice, this interpretation reflects the collective strength of eight enterprises, enabling LIANREN Digital Health to integrate its advantages in medical technology, healthcare informatics, health insurance, medical big data, and commercial channels, thereby exploring new models of “Internet + Healthcare” services and fostering the development of emerging business formats.

The establishment of LIANREN Digital Health signifies our country’s growing emphasis on the “Internet + Healthcare” model. By deploying “Internet + Healthcare” initiatives to explore new service models and foster emerging business formats, we are striving to advance the medical and health sector. Ultimately, digital and intelligent technologies will empower the “Healthy China” national strategy, ensuring that every Chinese citizen has access to high-quality medical and healthcare services.

Although LIANREN Digital Health is a relative newcomer in terms of its establishment date, it has already become an undisputed leader in the medical big data industry by virtue of its strong backing.

Currently, LIANREN Digital Health adopts an integrated “Technology + Capital + Qualifications + Operations” model, establishing three major business segments: the Big Data Operations Segment, the Internet Healthcare Segment, and the Healthcare Industrial Park Segment. Within this overarching framework, the product architecture features a “One Lake, Three Platforms” structure.

In the “Big Data Business Segment,” LIANREN Digital Health will aggregate diverse data resources, build a data middle platform, a technology middle platform, and an open application platform, thereby fostering an ecosystem for the big data application industry chain.

In the “Internet Healthcare Business Segment,” LIANREN Digital Health is committed to becoming one of China’s largest internet healthcare operators, supporting the rapid development of China’s tiered diagnosis and treatment system, telemedicine system, and medical consortium system.

In the “Healthcare Industry Park Sector,” LIANREN Digital Health will leverage its big data resource advantages to build an open industrial value chain system, rapidly establishing a premier hub for the domestic healthcare big data industry.

The so-called “One Lake, Three Platforms” product architecture layout specifically refers to the “Data Lake Platform,” “Data Middle Platform,” “Technology Middle Platform,” and “Open Application Platform.”

Leveraging its “Three Major Segments” and the “One Lake, Three Platforms” framework, LIANREN Digital Health has gradually established an ecosystem encompassing six key areas: government-oriented health and medical big data services, medical services, health services, health management, medical education, and medical research. While comprehensively advancing the integrated and coordinated development of medicine, education, and research, the company is simultaneously strengthening foundational capabilities such as public health services and early warning systems for public emergencies.

Regarding LIANREN Digital Health’s future business model, Dai Zhong stated, “As a digital service company centered on healthcare big data, LIANREN Digital Health operates across multiple sectors—including medical big data, internet healthcare, and healthcare industrial parks—each with distinct business models. Focusing specifically on the big data segment, LIANREN is dedicated to managing and operating healthcare data, continuously leveraging technological innovation to uncover hidden value within the data. This value is transferred to insurance companies, healthcare security administrations, clinical research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, downstream technology R&D firms within the industry, and even the individual consumer market. The tangible manifestations of this value can take the form of data consulting services, health insurance product design services, or health management services. Given LIANREN’s unique attributes and qualifications in managing and operating national data resources, its business model and strategic approach are distinctly different from those of other big data companies in the industry.”

Given LIANREN Digital Health’s status as a “national team” member in the field of healthcare big data, it was entrusted with a mission distinct from that of other commercial companies at its inception. The National Healthcare Big Data Northern Center, located in Jinan, Shandong Province, was authorized by the National Health Commission and invested in, constructed, and subsequently operated by LIANREN Digital Health.

Dai Zhong stated that LIANREN Digital Health’s core competitive advantages are mainly reflected in three aspects:

LIANREN Digital Health, led by China Mobile as the lead investor, counts among its shareholders China Pacific Insurance, Jinan International Medical Center Industrial Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai Pudong State-owned Capital Venture Capital and Technology Innovation Fund, Bank of Communications, Inspur Group, Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, and Jiahemed. It is China’s first health and medical big data industrial group characterized by “central state-owned enterprise leadership, joint participation from local governments, financial institutions, and healthcare IT companies, with state-owned capital as the mainstay and market-oriented mechanisms.” The shareholders collectively leverage their strengths in medical technology, healthcare informatization, health insurance, medical big data, and commercial channels, thereby driving innovation and business development across LIANREN Digital Health.

On April 27, 2018, the National Health Commission signed the "Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Jointly Establishing the Northern Center of National Health and Medical Big Data" with the Shandong Provincial People's Government and the Jinan Municipal People's Government, officially locating the Northern Center of National Health and Medical Big Data in Jinan. As the investor, builder, and operator, LIANREN Digital Health will work with the Jinan Municipal People's Government to advance the development of the Northern Center of National Health and Medical Big Data. This grants LIANREN Digital Health a unique competitive advantage, enabling it to lawfully conduct data processing, data mining, and the development of industry ecosystem applications for health and medical big data resources, based on national authorization for the operation of such data.

As the “national team” in the field of healthcare big data, LIANREN Digital Health fully leverages market-oriented mechanisms to assemble professional technical and medical expert teams. By capitalizing on shareholder resources in 5G technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence, the company engages in extensive collaborations with national-level platforms, authoritative medical institutions, and industry partners. Focusing on key business areas, LIANREN Digital Health develops and operates healthcare big data infrastructure, platforms, and applications, providing a wide range of big data and internet-based services across public health, internet hospitals, telemedicine, integrated elderly care and medical services, health management, insurance innovation, pharmaceutical R&D, and medical education.

Taking China Mobile, a shareholder, as an example, it will be able to provide LIANREN Digital Health with strong commercial channel support, C-end user resources, and capability support.

Specifically, as China’s largest telecommunications service provider, China Mobile possesses distinct technological, product, and talent advantages in big data operations and service operations, all of which can support LIANREN Digital Health, a company whose primary business model centers on digital service operations. Furthermore, China Mobile’s mature products and services, such as Cloud Video Conferencing, SMS platforms, and 5G platforms, can provide LIANREN Digital Health with various capability supports.

Meanwhile, China Mobile’s services span provincial and municipal governments, health authorities, healthcare institutions, data operations and maintenance clients, as well as upstream and downstream partners. Notably, China Mobile serves a large number of top-tier hospital clients in Beijing and Shanghai, which can serve as natural demonstration windows for LIANREN Digital Health’s business.

Furthermore, China Mobile’s vast user base will provide strong support for LIANREN Digital Health in expanding its individual consumer market. As of November 2019, China Mobile had a total of 946 million subscribers. LIANREN Digital Health can capture the consumer-to-consumer (C-end) market by offering digital healthcare services, such as personal health management and telemedicine, to China Mobile users.

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, LIANREN Digital Health primarily leveraged its connectivity capabilities; however, due to the lag in data acquisition, the value of big data will gradually emerge during the economic recovery period.

Due to the high transmissibility of COVID-19, telemedicine has undoubtedly become the primary channel for residents to obtain medical consultations and advice. To promote the development of telemedicine during the epidemic, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University (National Telemedicine Center) spearheaded a remote consultation system project covering isolation wards in 130 designated hospitals for novel coronavirus pneumonia across 18 prefecture-level cities in Henan Province. LIANREN Digital Health undertook the construction of this project and completed delivery within seven days of contract signing.

In Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, LIANREN Digital Health partnered with China Mobile Hubei Branch and Tongji Hospital in Wuhan to launch “Video Consultations” to support epidemic prevention and control efforts. During the outbreak, urban traffic in Wuhan was restricted, and outpatient services at most hospitals were not yet fully operational, posing significant challenges for patients seeking medical care. To address this, LIANREN Digital Health, together with China Mobile Hubei Branch and Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, jointly launched an online “Video Outpatient Clinic” platform, providing remote medical access for patients unable to seek in-person care due to the impact of the epidemic.

Leveraging the National Health and Medical Big Data Northern Center, LIANREN Digital Health collaborated with Jinan Mobile to integrate ten institutions within Jinan City into a unified network, enabling remote command and dispatch. Furthermore, it established real-time connectivity with the Dabie Mountain Regional Medical Center in Huanggang, Hubei Province, creating an efficient channel for close coordination between Shandong’s medical teams aiding Hubei and the telemedicine center.

As the pandemic and its impacts gradually recede, LIANREN Digital Health will accelerate collaboration among various healthcare companies, enhance the role of its data middle platform, and drive the development of healthcare enterprises across different regions.

LIANREN Digital Health has only taken its first step. Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, sectors such as healthcare big data and internet-based healthcare have garnered joint attention from the government, enterprises, and investors, rapidly transforming the healthcare market from a blue ocean into a red ocean. As a company with state-owned capital dominance operating under market-oriented principles, how will LIANREN Digital Health perform amid intensifying competition? Since officially settling in Zhangjiang, a hub densely populated with health-tech enterprises, what advantages can Zhangjiang offer to LIANREN? Conversely, what changes can LIANREN bring to Zhangjiang and even reshape the broader landscape of the healthcare industry? Only time will tell.