YuGuo Doctor: The 'Meituan-Dianping' of Premium Healthcare Transforming Medical Access for China's Middle-to-High-Income Population

Currently, the penetration of the internet into healthcare services is already very high. We can complete services such as health consultations, minor illness inquiries, medication purchases, and health management online. The internet is profoundly influencing our medical-seeking behavior.

In the niche market of “Internet + Healthcare,” there is a highly distinctive platform that primarily serves upper-middle-class and high-income individuals. By connecting premium private healthcare institutions with insurance providers, it offers services such as curated selection of high-end private medical facilities, access to physicians’ practice information, and consultation discounts, thereby empowering users to make better-informed healthcare decisions. Currently covering millions of middle- and high-income users, it has become the “leading brand” in the premium private healthcare sector. This platform is “Yuguo Doctor.”

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) interviewed Ma Yukun, Founder and CEO of Yugu Doctor, who shared insights on the background behind the company’s establishment, the problems it aims to address, its phased operational data, and its future development plans.

Yu Guo Doctor Founder and CEO Ma Yukun (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Ma Yukun comes from a family of physicians, with three generations practicing medicine. He has ten years of clinical experience at Beijing Tiantan Hospital.

In February 2011, Ma Yukun became a mother and purchased high-end commercial insurance for her child. However, she encountered numerous inconveniences when utilizing the medical services covered by the insurance. “Even as an industry insider, I faced information asymmetry when selecting healthcare providers. I didn’t know where to find suitable doctors, nor was I clear about the specific consultation procedures. Prices at private hospitals were also insufficiently transparent, let alone the possibility of posting reviews after visits,” said Ma Yukun.

Ma Yukun also learned that other mothers faced similar confusion, which inspired her to create a platform for them to exchange insights and make better-informed medical decisions.

In February 2012, “Mama Yuguo Network” was officially launched as an invitation-only online forum. Its user base primarily comprised mothers who had given birth at high-end private medical institutions or held premium insurance plans, ensuring a highly qualified community. After more than two years of development, the platform amassed over 100,000 users, demonstrating to Ma Yukun the powerful aggregating capability of the internet.

In 2014, Ma Yukun resigned from a public hospital to devote himself fully to the operation of Mama Yuguo Network, securing angel-round financing. Subsequently, Mama Yuguo Network was rebranded as Yuguo Doctor, and its user base expanded from pregnant women and infants to middle- and high-income populations.

Building on its existing business framework, Yiguo Doctor has rapidly established a service network that connects users, commercial healthcare institutions, and insurance providers. When users have needs, they can conveniently access the required information on the platform, such as physicians’ practice credentials and hospital discount details. Meanwhile, hospitals benefit from platform-driven patient traffic and transparent word-of-mouth promotion, while insurance institutions gain access to high-value medical data and precisely targeted user segments.

Yuguo Doctor’s business model shares many similarities with “Meituan-Dianping,” particularly in terms of accessing medical information and evaluating medical experiences.

Ma Yukun told VCBeat that when patients choose private hospitals, they primarily consider factors such as consultation fees, timeliness of information, the professionalism and reputation of doctors and hospitals, and the overall patient experience. Yiguo Doctor provides users with a unified platform that addresses issues like information asymmetry and difficulties in searching for medical services. Additionally, it offers discounted consultation rates and other relevant information, helping patients gain a comprehensive understanding of the healthcare process.

After completing a medical consultation, users can evaluate their experience, helping healthcare institutions optimize service processes. This two-way interaction between users and healthcare providers addresses the historical issue of patients’ passive role in seeking care and their feedback being overlooked, thereby establishing an effective feedback mechanism.

High-end medical insurance is a long-term commitment, making user reputation critical for insurance providers. Users require detailed information on claim settlement rates across various hospitals and specialist consultation schedules. The "One-Click Insurance Linkage" feature offered by Yiguo Doctor enables users to directly bind their high-end medical insurance cards. This allows them to check specific hospital reimbursement ratios and doctor availability online at any time before seeking care, helping users quickly and effectively identify suitable healthcare facilities and significantly enhancing the overall user experience.

To date, Yuguo has partnered with more than 40 renowned domestic and international insurance companies, including Bupa, MSH, Cigna & CMB, and Ping An, covering nearly 200 high-end medical insurance plans (including discontinued ones) and helping them build a strong reputation.

This multi-party win-win business model has enabled Yiguo Doctor to gradually make headway in user acquisition, integration of medical resources, and insurance partnerships since its launch. In terms of user acquisition, Yiguo’s early adopters were accumulated through word-of-mouth, and this group has now become the platform’s most loyal key opinion leaders (KOLs), demonstrating exceptionally high brand loyalty and stickiness. Additionally, user operations, content output, and collaborations with traffic entry points are among the strategies Yiguo Doctor employs to expand its user base.

Bridging the gap in medical resources relies more on patience and perseverance. “I once made over 100 phone calls to finalize a partnership with a single hospital. Some hospitals reneged on their agreements with Yuguo the very next day after initially confirming them. Some institutions took a long time before deciding to give us a chance. However, all these healthcare providers have become steadfast partners of Yuguo since signing contracts with us. Our ability to deliver value to healthcare institutions is widely recognized in the industry,” said Ma Yukun.

Throughout its journey, Yiguo has continuously set new benchmarks in the field of high-end medical services. According to data provided by Yiguo, the Yiguo Doctor platform currently covers more than ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, with overseas presence in regions and countries such as Hong Kong and Japan.

Coverage of high-end private medical institutions exceeds 80%, with 100% comprehensive coverage of top international medical brands, including United Family Healthcare,明德 Medical, Amcare, Parkway, and Ward.

Over 700 medical institutions have joined the platform, encompassing more than 10,000 senior physicians, with monthly omni-channel user coverage exceeding 1 million.

These sets of data have established Yuguodocs as the “leading brand” in the high-end medical services sector.

Looking back at the achievements of Yiguo Doctor, we can see that they are essentially a microcosm of the development of China’s “Internet + Healthcare” industry. In the early stages of this sector’s growth, efforts focused primarily on addressing information asymmetry, such as through online registration and appointment scheduling. As the industry matured, it gradually built a comprehensive healthcare service network capable of integrating various links in the care continuum and facilitating multi-party connectivity. In its more advanced stage, the industry has been shifting toward a “value-based healthcare” system, creating value for all stakeholders involved.

In terms of financing, Yuguo secured angel investment in 2014 and Pre-A round funding in 2015. Between 2016 and 2017, the company received more than two rounds of follow-on investments from existing shareholders. To date, its total funding has approached RMB 100 million, with investors including Sequoia Capital, Youchuang Capital, Chaoshan Capital, and Tunlan Investment.

It is rare in the industry to see a company that enjoys such strong recognition and acclaim from its original shareholders while maintaining a low-key and steady profile. VCBeat has also learned that the early angel investors of Yuguo include Mr. Liu Jun, the angel investor of Toutiao, among other prominent industry figures. Additionally, according to Ma Yukun, Yuguo is about to launch a new round of financing, aiming to achieve a win-win outcome in both the user market and the capital market.

From a macro perspective, Yiguo Doctor emerged at a highly favorable juncture. On one hand, healthcare reform policies have been continuously introduced, leading to increased physician mobility and greater encouragement for private medical practice. On the other hand, there is strong enthusiasm among social capital to participate in healthcare services; beyond existing large hospital management groups, insurance funds, real estate developers, and pharmaceutical companies are all increasing their investments in healthcare services, thereby expanding the overall supply of commercial healthcare. Meanwhile, the rise of high-income populations has driven a gradual increase in demand for high-quality medical services. Additionally, the continuous improvement of the commercial health insurance system has provided a robust supplement to healthcare payment mechanisms. These factors constitute favorable conditions for the development of premium healthcare services and can be regarded as external tailwinds supporting Yiguo’s sustained growth.

Ma Yukun also stated that China’s healthcare service system has evolved from a state-funded public healthcare model, through progressive healthcare reforms, to the current phase of coordinated development between the public healthcare system and commercial healthcare services. The top-level design aims to gradually establish a multi-tiered and diversified healthcare service system to meet the nation’s healthcare needs.

From the recently promoted tiered diagnosis and treatment policy, it is evident that its purpose is to establish a more comprehensive medical service network, allowing patients to be effectively diverted between tertiary hospitals and primary healthcare institutions, thereby alleviating the pressure on tertiary hospitals. This also indicates that high-quality medical expert resources are already extremely scarce and unable to meet patient demand. An important approach to addressing this issue is the development of commercial healthcare, which can reflect the value of high-quality medical services and achieve sustainable development.

From a further perspective, commercial medical institutions, especially high-end ones, offer better practice conditions than public medical institutions in terms of income, workload saturation, and working environment. This will drive the flow of high-quality medical resources to commercial medical institutions, followed by patients with payment capabilities.

Overall, the market size of commercial healthcare is expected to expand gradually. By 2020, revenue from commercial healthcare institutions is projected to account for more than 25% of the medical services market share, reaching a scale of RMB 300–500 billion. Numerous business opportunities will emerge across various segments related to commercial healthcare services, including payment, patient visits, information access, and insurance. Integrated healthcare service platforms such as Yiguo Doctor also stand to benefit from significant growth prospects.

Leveraging favorable market conditions, Yuguang has charted its own development path. “Regarding our development strategy, on one hand, we will remain steadfast in our original entrepreneurial mission, continuing to transform and optimize the healthcare access and lifestyles of China’s middle class through commercial medical services. On the other hand, there are numerous avenues for exploration. Whether it is private hospitals paired with high-end insurance, private hospitals partnered with premium merchants, or high-end insurance combined with premium merchants, each of these three pairings presents distinct business models awaiting our development,” stated Ma Yukun. He indicated that Yuguang’s future product models and service directions hold diverse possibilities, such as family healthcare service solutions and online consultations with specialists. These initiatives will support Yuguang Doctors in continuously optimizing their service network, thereby creating greater value for users and all stakeholders across the industry chain.