ShuidiChou and Beijing Red Cross Blood Center Forge Strategic Partnership to Launch China's First Online Voluntary Blood Donation Initiative

On July 17, 2018, Shuidichou, China’s largest online crowdfunding platform for serious illnesses, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center at the Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chinese Red Cross Society. The two parties will jointly launch China’s first online voluntary blood donation campaign, the “Blood Donation Season.” Through Shuidichou’s online platform, the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center will appeal to hundreds of millions of users to donate blood for patients in need of life-saving transfusions, aiming to address the seasonal “blood shortages” that have traditionally occurred during winter and summer. By leveraging innovative internet-based approaches, both parties seek to broaden the scope of voluntary blood donation and work together to support public welfare and national health.

The promotional slogan for World Blood Donor Day 2018 was “Think of others, donate blood, share life,” and this collaboration is centered on this theme. Following the signing of the agreement, Shuidichou will become a strategic partner of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center. The two parties will initially adopt the “Internet + Voluntary Blood Donation” model to establish an online portal for nationwide voluntary blood donation and leverage Shuidichou’s platform to promote online blood donation campaigns.

Recently, the film *Dying to Survive* has sparked intense public debate. In the movie, hospitalized patients not only struggle to afford medication but also require blood transfusions to sustain their lives. However, in reality, these patients in urgent need of transfusions face a situation even more brutal than financial hardship: often, even with money, they cannot secure an adequate supply of blood!

For most patients with serious illnesses, blood transfusion is an indispensable part of the treatment process. The reality, however, is that medical science has yet to develop artificial blood capable of fully replicating the functions of human blood; for now, we can only obtain it from healthy, age-eligible donors.

Data shows that since 2007, Beijing’s annual blood supply has exceeded 100 tons. However, due to the abundance of medical resources and the large number of patients seeking care, blood shortages frequently occur during the summer and winter months each year. Therefore, blood donation is a matter of great significance. The Beijing Red Cross Blood Center describes voluntary unpaid blood donation as a “superpower,” stating, “Voluntary unpaid blood donation is our superpower—a superpower capable of saving lives.”

The head of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center highly praised Shuidichou’s innovative proposal for “blood donation fundraising.” Shuidichou has long been deeply engaged in the field of crowdfunding for critical illnesses, committed to efficiently resolving medical funding challenges for the general public. Recognizing the urgent societal issue of blood shortages, Shuidichou has innovatively introduced the concept of “blood donation fundraising.” By leveraging its efficient channel advantages in the internet era, Shuidichou aims to support the voluntary unpaid blood donation industry, further capitalize on its operational strengths, and extend the concept of “fundraising” into the realm of “voluntary unpaid blood donation.” This initiative provides more comprehensive medical support to society and represents a pioneering step for the entire internet industry, fully demonstrating the responsibility expected of an industry leader.

Driven by a commitment to social responsibility, Shuidichou and the Red Cross Blood Center have jointly launched the “Blood Donation Season” campaign. By combining Shuidichou’s robust online mobilization capabilities with the Red Cross Blood Center’s established offline blood management expertise, the initiative calls on members of the public to donate blood voluntarily, contributing to society within their means.

In fact, as early as June 14, a month ago, Shuidichou and the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center conducted preliminary explorations of this collaboration. The two parties jointly launched the “Let Love Walk with You” unpaid blood donation campaign, which received an enthusiastic response and high praise from the head of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center. The official stated, “Blood not only connects donors with recipients but also brings together countless caring individuals who have never met, building bridges of life. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Shuidichou and its volunteers for their strong support, and we call on more caring individuals to join the ranks of unpaid blood donors in the future.”

Armed with the valuable experience gained from this exploratory collaborative initiative, Shuidichou and the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center have renewed expectations for the “Blood Donation Season” launched under their strategic partnership. At the signing ceremony, Xu Wen, Chief of the Blood Source Management Department at the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, stated, “This collaboration represents a significant endeavor for the Red Cross Blood Center. We are delighted to partner with an innovative internet company like Shuidichou. Leveraging the high efficiency of online information dissemination will undoubtedly unlock immense potential for this cooperation.”

It is reported that the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, a public welfare institution established in 1957, is affiliated with the Beijing Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission. It is a specialized organization integrating blood collection and supply, scientific research, teaching, and production. Shuidichou, backed by prominent investors including Tencent, BlueRun Ventures, Gaorong Capital, Meituan-Dianping, Sinovation Ventures, and IDG, is China’s largest online fundraising platform for major illnesses. As a pioneer in introducing zero-fee fundraising for such cases on digital platforms, Shuidichou has made significant contributions to social welfare. Consequently, it has received notable accolades, including being named one of the Top Ten Charity Projects of 2017 by media outlets under the guidance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and winning the 2018 Social Enterprise Award.

As of the end of June 2018, Shuidichou had successfully provided free fundraising services to more than 630,000 patients with serious illnesses who were experiencing financial hardship, cumulatively raising over RMB 7.2 billion, with more than 240 million individual donations. Its strong capacity for mobilizing social public welfare and its effectiveness in supporting grassroots charitable initiatives were recently highly praised by Jet Li, founder of the One Foundation. By now joining forces with the Red Cross Blood Center to jointly promote social education on “voluntary unpaid blood donation,” Shuidichou is poised to play an even greater positive role in advancing social public welfare and the Healthy China initiative.

In addition to its Shuidichou business, Shuidi Inc. also owns Shuidi Huzhu, the leading online health mutual aid platform; Shuidibao, the top distribution platform for health insurance products from multiple insurers; and Shuidi Gongyi, a finger-tip philanthropy platform certified by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. These platforms have achieved deep penetration across most third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-tier cities nationwide, accumulating over 400 million registered users and establishing a comprehensive, multi-dimensional healthcare security system for the Chinese population that covers both pre-event protection and post-event assistance. The strategic partnership with the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center marks a significant step in Shuidichou’s fulfillment of corporate social responsibility and active participation in public welfare initiatives. Moving forward, Shuidichou, Shuidi Huzhu, and Shuidibao will jointly explore opportunities in the healthcare services sector, striving to develop a Kaiser Permanente-style model tailored to China’s national conditions, in alignment with the company’s mission of “protecting hundreds of millions of families.”