Weimai Celebrates 4th Anniversary: Founder Qiu Jialin's Internal Letter Highlights 'Trust-Based Healthcare' Vision Amid IPO Filing

On September 9, 2019, Weimai, a localized internet-based medical and health service platform, celebrated its fourth anniversary. In an internal company-wide email, founder Qiu Jialin not only reviewed the four-year entrepreneurial journey but also decoded the secrets behind Weimai’s rapid growth amidst the diversified competitive landscape of “Internet + Healthcare” from four perspectives: mission, objectives, strategy, and beliefs.

Jia Lin Qiu once stated that since its inception, Weimai has aimed to reconstruct the doctor-patient connection based on hospitals, much like its logo depicts: a consulting physician and a patient seeking care, holding hands. In his internal letter, he also emphasized that Weimai “not only focuses on enhancing patient services by innovating doctor-patient engagement models and enriching service offerings to make healthcare access easier for patients, but also strengthens the healthcare supply side by optimizing service workflows, innovating service delivery methods, and improving diagnostic and treatment capabilities, thereby making it easier for medical professionals to provide healthcare services.”

The internal letter also revealed that Weimai is currently making significant strides in smart healthcare, internet hospitals, and specialty operations. As the first healthcare service platform in China to propose the concept of “Trust-Based Healthcare,” Weimai will continue to explore and unlock the value of “Trust-Based Healthcare.”

Below is the full text of the internal letter:

Dear Weimai Colleagues:

After 1,461 days and nights, today, Weimai turns four.

Looking back on the four years we have journeyed together, I am filled with profound emotions. “Internet + Healthcare” is an entirely new frontier, offering no shortcuts to success nor industry benchmarks to follow; it has been a case of crossing the river by feeling for stones. It is easy to understand the effort and dedication each of you has contributed over these past four years. Weimai’s ability to forge ahead courageously would not have been possible without your steadfast resilience.

Since its inception, Weimai has been committed to the noble mission of “making healthcare services accessible,” which reflects not only our original aspiration but also people’s pursuit of a better life. Weimai has consistently focused on enhancing patient services by innovating doctor-patient engagement models and diversifying service offerings, thereby ensuring that patients can easily access healthcare. Meanwhile, we have also strengthened the healthcare supply side by optimizing service workflows, innovating service delivery methods, and improving diagnostic and treatment capabilities, thus making it easier for medical professionals to provide healthcare services.

Shouldering this mission, every step Weimai takes is firm and powerful. In September 2015, the Weimai APP was officially launched and promoted. In 2016, China’s first city-level “Internet+” full-process medical payment platform went online, Weimai physician services were initiated, and internet hospital network outpatient clinics were implemented. In 2017, Weimai’s first provincial model project was launched; in-hospital innovative businesses represented by “one-stop maternity care services” began to gain momentum, and the first “Ximai” maternal and child health new retail MALL opened its doors. In 2018, we signed partnerships with over 70 cities across 17 provinces, ushering in the new “Weimai 2.0” phase. We focused on strategic layout and breakthroughs in “innovative healthcare service operations,” achieving the goal of “ensuring each patient receives at least one exclusive service.” In 2019, we secured a new round of financing amounting to USD 100 million, led by IDG Capital. This journey has been filled with hardships, joys, and growth. Fortunately, you have stood by me, staying true to our original aspiration.

In 2016, the “Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan” elevated “Internet + Healthcare” to the level of national strategy. In April 2018, the General Office of the State Council issued Document No. 26, titled “Opinions on Promoting the Development of ‘Internet + Healthcare,’” officially ushering in a new wave of internet healthcare reform. By late August 2019, the National Healthcare Security Administration released the “Guiding Opinions on Improving Pricing and Medical Insurance Payment Policies for ‘Internet +’ Medical Services,” accelerating the development of “Internet + Healthcare” services by strengthening payment support. These successive favorable policies clearly demonstrate that, regardless of when one embarks on this journey, every day presents a promising new starting point on the path of developing the broader health industry.

Our mission defines why we strive, while our goals are the specific tasks we must accomplish in pursuit of that mission and vision. Four years ago, Weimai clearly established its goal: “Every individual has a health record, every family has a family doctor, and every city has an online hospital.” Over the past four years, Weimai’s services have reached nearly 200 million people, with urban user penetration exceeding 30%. On the Weimai platform, 100,000 doctors provide more than 10,000 service SKUs. Weimai ranks second nationwide in the medical appointment registration sector according to the Analysys Qianfan Index, second domestically in the TalkingData Value Score for the mobile healthcare industry, and third nationwide in the App Store’s free Medical apps category according to Qimai Data. Overall, we have delivered a strong performance at this stage. Let us applaud ourselves, as well as all the users, doctors, hospitals, and partners who have placed their trust in us!

Through deep collaboration with public hospitals, Weimai integrates the “3+1” core functionalities of major hospitals in a city—namely services, payment, data, and online physician presence—thereby migrating daily patient–provider “trust-based interactions” from each hospital to an online platform. This creates standardized “trust units,” enabling local residents to engage seamlessly and in real time with trusted local specialists. Such city-level virtuous healthcare cycles have, in turn, empowered Weimai’s growth. After four years of operations, the user-endorsed mantra “Shop on Taobao, seek care on Weimai” has gained organic traction across multiple cities where Weimai operates. Currently, Weimai’s ratio of monthly active users (MAU) to registered users stands at 25%, significantly surpassing the industry average.

Since last year, we have continuously expanded our business footprint by launching internet hospital platforms in collaboration with multiple hospitals across provinces such as Zhejiang, Hubei, and Hunan. Together with nearly 1,000 partner hospitals, we are fully leveraging core medical service resources, including renowned specialists, to establish an integrated online-offline, in-hospital and out-of-hospital networked diagnosis and treatment model. In addition, Weimai is building an internet hospital in Hainan. As we continue to expand our “Internet + Healthcare” landscape, we remain full of confidence.

At our mid-year meetings in 2018 and 2019, we discussed innovation and emphasized that it is not the responsibility of a single department or team. To go “All in” on innovation, it must be internalized into the daily mindset of every Weimai employee. We must have the courage to break away from conventional thinking, deeply explore every healthcare service, meticulously analyze every user response, and truly put patients at the center by optimizing every detail of our services.

In our commitment to innovation, we have consistently integrated the strategy of “optimizing existing resources” with “expanding new growth.” We leverage “Healthcare + Internet” to enhance current medical services and pioneer “Internet + Healthcare” models to diversify service offerings. Since last year, our initiative to “ensure every patient receives at least one personalized service” has been more than just a slogan; it demands diligent execution from every member of the Weimai team. It is gratifying to note that, through over a year of practice, Weimai has undertaken meaningful initiatives that distinguish us from competitors. We have implemented specialized operations focused on specific disease categories, analyzing 50 departments, over 300 diseases, and more than 10,000 service SKUs to explore how internet technologies can elevate care. This approach enables us to provide patients with comprehensive, full-cycle management spanning pre-diagnosis, during-diagnosis, and post-diagnosis stages. In collaboration with our partner hospitals, these efforts have earned us recognition and awards such as the “Best Case Study in Innovative Practices for Primary Healthcare in China.”

In the diversified competitive landscape of "Internet + Healthcare," Weimai is pioneering new blue oceans in innovative services.

Weimai is China’s first healthcare service platform to propose the concept of “Trust-Based Healthcare.” In an era where technology and business landscapes are rapidly evolving, Weimai has never ceased its exploration and cultivation of the value of “trust.” By leveraging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile internet, and artificial intelligence (AI), Weimai builds both technological and humanistic trust, thereby continuously strengthening the trust relationship between doctors and patients.

On one hand, by building and empowering the “Smart Healthcare” system, we enhance the diagnostic and treatment capabilities as well as patient care processes of medical institutions. We improve healthcare efficiency through intelligent triage, seamless identity authentication and payment, and comprehensive in-hospital navigation. Additionally, our intelligent clinical decision support system helps medical personnel deliver more precise, effective, and efficient diagnostic and treatment services.

On the other hand, by building and operating “Internet + Healthcare” platforms, we enhance connectivity and interaction among hospitals, physicians, and patients, and innovate diverse models of doctor–patient service. We have already implemented whole-course disease management services covering pre-consultation, intra-consultation, and post-consultation phases in many hospitals, along with various innovative services co-operated with clinical departments, such as integrated maternity care, postoperative rehabilitation management, pediatric growth management, post-health-checkup management, and ambulatory surgery management.

We have also extended more services beyond hospital walls, firmly believing that “Internet + Healthcare” should not aim to replace the “cure” provided by the existing public healthcare system. Instead, it should delve deeper into and innovate the content of medical services, ensuring that healthcare delivery offers not only “cure” but also enhanced “care.” From the outset, Weimai has been driven by patients’ localized healthcare needs, establishing trusted doctor-patient connections based on initial consultations to provide patients with greater access to care-related services. Like many others, I am confident that Weimai will become a vital component in improving the overall service quality of the current healthcare system, reducing unreasonable medical expenditures, and significantly enhancing the public’s sense of accessibility and satisfaction with healthcare services.

General Secretary Xi Jinping stated, “Without universal health, there can be no comprehensive well-being.” Whether by leveraging technology to enhance the capacity of hospitals and physicians to deliver patient care, or by innovating services to enrich the modes of interaction between hospitals/physicians and patients, the ultimate goal is to serve the people’s health and become an indispensable force in advancing the “Healthy China” initiative.

Guided by this conviction, every member of the Weimai team must spring into action to expand Weimai’s reach to more cities and help more people. Our goal is to ensure that those in need can find appropriate healthcare channels and methods—just like the young boy from Zhangjiagang I often mention—and receive timely, precise, trustworthy, and compassionate medical and health services. At the same time, we aim to inspire healthcare service providers to make more proactive and positive changes and offer greater support.

For Weimai, there is no established model to follow. Our greatest teacher is ourselves, and our biggest competitor is also ourselves. Over the past four years, we have grown from one person’s aspiration into a shared dream of more than 500 individuals. With stars in our hearts yet feet firmly on the ground, we look toward the future while seizing the present. To every member of the Weimai family: let us pursue our dreams with unwavering commitment and full energy, honoring the privilege of having met on this journey.

Technological innovation, across all sectors of society, is akin to ocean waves—emerging from nothing yet enduring endlessly; it is also like dye diffusing into a glass of water, where molecular motion eventually distributes the color evenly throughout. Driven by technological transformations in mechanics, electrical engineering, and information technology, internet-based intelligent technologies follow the same trajectory, albeit with faster, broader, and more lasting impact. E-commerce may prove to be merely a century-long industry, allowing Mr. Ma to embark on his new journey with peace of mind, whereas the healthcare sector will persist indefinitely alongside human development. For the growth of the health industry, the exploration of emerging technological innovations, and the endeavors of the Weimai team, these four years mark only the beginning.

Qiu Jialin

September 9, 2019