Ping An Good Doctor Launches 'Private Doctor' Service, Ushering in a New Era of Internet Healthcare

On June 10, 2019, Ping An Good Doctor launched a strategic new product—Ping An Good Doctor Private Doctor—targeting the 200 million-strong new middle-class population and providing one-stop healthcare services, including health management, real-time consultation, second opinions from renowned specialists, and arrangements for offline outpatient visits.

Leveraging its technological advantages and high-quality medical resources, Ping An Good Doctor’s Private Doctor service has broken the traditional healthcare model where “patients revolve around medical resources.” By providing dedicated one-on-one private doctors, it truly achieves a paradigm where “high-quality healthcare resources revolve around users,” advancing internet healthcare innovation from merely digitizing traditional care delivery into a new era of private physician services.

According to data from the 2018 Health Statistics Yearbook, the total number of outpatient and emergency visits at medical and health institutions nationwide reached 8.31 billion. Of this total, hospitals accounted for 3.58 billion outpatient visits, representing 43.1%. Given the current overconcentration of medical resources in tertiary Grade A hospitals, the “three long waits and one short consultation” problem is widespread, with “waiting hours for a few minutes of consultation” becoming the norm for ordinary patients.

It is reported that the newly launched Ping An Good Doctor Private Physician service covers various demographic groups, including adults, the elderly, and children. By assigning each user a dedicated one-on-one private physician, the service provides around-the-clock support to meet comprehensive healthcare needs, such as online medical consultations and offline hospital appointment scheduling. The majority of Ping An Good Doctor’s private physician team are from Grade 3A hospitals, with an average of over 10 years of clinical practice experience.

In addition to services such as online consultations and offline hospital appointment scheduling, the exclusive private physician also serves as a daily health manager. By establishing electronic health records, customizing physical examination plans, interpreting examination reports, tracking abnormal indicators, and providing weight management, the physician continuously monitors users’ health status over the long term to prevent disease onset.

Behind the private physician stands an expert panel composed of renowned specialists from China’s top 100 hospitals, capable of matching users with multiple leading experts for second opinions in the shortest possible time and formulating the optimal treatment plan.

Furthermore, to address the difficulties “empty-nest parents” face in accessing medical care, “Ping An Good Doctor Private Physician” has launched the “Peace-of-Mind 5-Step Accompaniment” service. Care companions, who undergo rigorous screening and professional training, provide end-to-end accompaniment throughout the healthcare journey—including appointment registration, consultation, payment, diagnostic tests and laboratory examinations, and medication pickup—making outpatient visits and hospitalizations more convenient and efficient.

After precisely targeting the new middle class, a demographic exceeding 200 million people, Ping An Good Doctor’s integrated “medical care, pharmaceuticals, and insurance” closed-loop ecosystem has gradually become more robust.

The emerging middle class is currently the mainstay of the consumer market. This demographic is characterized by high income, high consumption, and high stress. Due to their demanding work schedules, they often lack the time to endure long queues at hospitals. Pain points such as “relying on hearsay for daily health maintenance,” “inability to assess sudden health issues,” “poor continuity in repeated examinations,” and “time-consuming and laborious appointment registration” have long plagued this group. They urgently seek a “doctor friend” who understands their needs and is accessible for assistance at any time, and they have an even stronger desire for higher-quality, personalized medical and healthcare services.

The “Ping An Good Doctor Private Doctor” service model enables comprehensive interaction between doctors and users, allowing physicians to monitor users’ health status over the long term. This fosters a close, acquaintance-like bond and builds deep mutual trust. Within this new paradigm of familiar relationships, users receive more precise, consistent, and personalized healthcare services, thereby breaking away from the impersonal “stranger” dynamic characteristic of traditional medical care.

Furthermore, the services of private physicians are not limited to individual paying members. “Ping An Good Doctor Private Physician” leverages its open ecosystem platform to engage in deep collaborations with leading partners across insurance, banking, consumer, and health sectors, providing them with diversified “medical + health” solutions. Previously, Ping An Good Doctor entered into a strategic partnership with Wyeth Nutrition, delivering high-quality private physician services to the 12 million members of the Wyeth Mom Club.

According to Ping An Good Doctor’s annual report, as of December 31, 2018, the platform’s cumulative registered users reached 265 million, a year-on-year increase of 72.4 million; monthly active users (MAU) reached 54.7 million, up 85.4% year on year; and monthly paying users at the end of the period reached 2.36 million, an 86.2% year-on-year increase. The company maintained rapid growth in three key metrics: cumulative registered users, monthly active users, and monthly paying users.

Compared with internet healthcare companies that innovate in various niche segments of medical services, Ping An Good Doctor is clearly not a company focused on appointment registration, consultations, triage, physician tools, hospital services, or medical artificial intelligence. Its positioning is as an entry point and platform, aiming to connect as many participants as possible across the healthcare service value chain.

Judging from the fierce competition in the internet healthcare industry, implementing a paid membership system is one of the viable business models. This is evidenced by the recent shutdown of “Green Apple Health,” which demonstrates that without capital injection, a project lacking self-sustaining revenue generation cannot survive.

According to the annual report, during the reporting period, Ping An Good Doctor’s member products developed in collaboration with commercial insurers (primarily from the Ping An Group) generated cumulative revenues exceeding RMB 200 million and served over one million insurance members. Under this insurance partnership model, commercially insured members who pay annual premiums can access comprehensive healthcare membership services provided by Ping An Good Doctor, covering the entire care continuum from prevention and medical consultation to rehabilitation.

Therefore, within its own business segment, in addition to various member-paid services such as family doctor and online consultation, Ping An Good Doctor’s innovative private doctor service is also a model for generating revenue and enhancing member stickiness.

This also corroborates VCBeat’s analysis of Ping An Good Doctor’s prospectus when news of its IPO emerged: once hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, the medical community, and insurance sectors are fully integrated, Ping An Good Doctor serves as the entry point for healthcare services tailored to Ping An Group’s “Big Health” strategy.