Li Tiantian: Understanding Industry-Level Needs to Shape the Future of DXY Bio-Commerce Platform
Since its founding in 2000, DXY has undergone 18 years of development. Over this period, DXY has grown from a small website hosted on NetEase’s free web-building platform into an internet healthcare platform that deeply connects the medical community, working alongside partners to witness the evolution and transformation of China’s healthcare ecosystem. Meanwhile, Dingxiangtong, the most e-commerce-oriented product in DXY’s portfolio, is also celebrating its 10th anniversary. How to shape the future of Dingxiangtong in alignment with DXY’s strategic direction may be answered through the insights and analysis of founder Li Tiantian.
Those familiar with the history of DXY likely know that it began as a website dedicated to discussions on literature search. As its entrepreneurial journey progressed, DXY gradually evolved into China’s largest platform for academic exchange in the healthcare industry, prompting the company to engage in deeper strategic reflection and planning. Li Tiantian believes that a critical factor for the success of any enterprise or industry lies in clearly defining and positioning its core development strategy. After thorough deliberation, DXY ultimately crystallized its core strategy around the “doctor–patient” dyad.
From a conventional perspective, the relationship between doctors and patients is simply one of providing and seeking medical care. However, a deeper examination of their respective needs reveals a far more complex reality. Taking physicians as an example, their journey spans from undergraduate medical education through advanced graduate training (master’s and doctoral programs), to initial clinical practice upon joining a hospital, and ultimately to career advancement as recognized medical experts. This path is arduous, with diverse needs emerging at different stages, including academic learning, scientific research, job hunting, professional promotion, and personal brand building.
Li Tiantian stated that DXY is committed to providing doctors with comprehensive solutions, thereby better supporting them in delivering higher-quality medical care to patients. For instance, the services offered by Dingxiang Tong largely meet physicians’ needs in scientific research. Within China’s healthcare evaluation system, the quality of research output and the number of high-impact academic papers significantly influence physicians’ promotions in professional titles.
The same holds true for patients. Whether dealing with minor ailments such as headaches and fevers or chronic diseases requiring long-term treatment, patient needs evolve continuously throughout the course of disease onset, treatment, management, and recovery. Therefore, it is essential to maintain ongoing interaction with healthcare professionals. This is the primary reason why DXY has developed the ICE (Information-Communication-Engagement) strategy for its patient-facing services.
Li Tiantian emphasized that when designing service solutions for doctors and patients, DXY adheres to the primary principle of being a value connector in the industry. This means that DXY aims to collaborate with industry partners to create and enhance high-quality services based on needs. Secondly, it focuses on "trustworthiness," which is mainly reflected in the fact that all content and services presented to doctors and patients need to be supported by scientific evidence. Data-driven growth of Dingxiangtong.
2018 marked the 10th anniversary of Dingxiang Tong, DXY’s professional biomedical business information platform. As DXY’s earliest commercialization initiative, Li Tiantian pointed out that choosing this direction for initial exploration was, in fact, a data-driven decision. He recalled that in the early years, research-related keywords accounted for more than half of the top searches in DXY’s backend search rankings. What impressed him most was that “Western blot” and “cell culture” consistently ranked among the top keywords for an extended period. Supported by these data insights, DXY launched the Dingxiang Tong platform in May 2008.
Li Tiantian explained that, in addition to user demand, there was an external backdrop to the launch of Dingxiangtong. Since entering the 21st century, China’s R&D investment has grown rapidly, and by 2009 it had become the second-largest country in the world for R&D spending. The increase in scientific research activities has driven substantial growth in the research services industry, creating opportunities for rapid expansion for Dingxiangtong, which specializes in connecting research service providers with biomedical researchers.
Looking back at DXY’s development over the past decade, Li Tiantian gave it high praise.
First, DXY BioMart has achieved user accumulation and explored its business model. In meeting users' scientific research needs, DXY BioMart has provided many high-quality services. The product database established by DXY BioMart, covering 40 million entries, facilitates price inquiries and purchases for users. Marketing activities conducted by clients on the DXY BioMart website have also yielded positive results and enhanced brand dissemination.
Second, within DXY’s product matrix, Dingxiangtong is the only platform with strong e-commerce attributes. Over the past decade, Dingxiangtong’s business accumulation, process optimization, and talent reserve in the e-commerce sector have provided valuable experience for DXY to launch e-commerce-based services targeted at patients.
Third, leveraging DXY’s internet DNA and its deep understanding of the needs of industry clients and users, Dingxiangtong has continuously driven technological and product innovation to optimize and upgrade industry solutions, laying a solid service foundation for future industrial upgrading and transformation under the “Enterprise + Internet” model.
A Decade in the Making: DXY Tong Has Become China’s Premier and Most Professional Biopharmaceutical Business Information Platform. Its clientele includes nearly all multinational life sciences companies operating in China, along with thousands of research service providers. Li Tiantian stated that the company envisions DXY Tong evolving from a deep understanding and support of individual products to a comprehensive grasp of the enterprises behind those products and the broader industry they inhabit. By identifying underlying needs and delivering holistic solutions, DXY Tong aims to assist companies and the entire sector in advancing internet-enabled industrial upgrading and transformation.
In fact, after years of in-depth observation of industry clients, DXY Connect has identified numerous shortcomings among research service companies in the biomedical sector across multiple dimensions, including promotion models, brand positioning, user engagement, and industry development. In response, DXY Connect has formulated the “Step-by-Step to Success” strategy, centered on the principle of “lightweight tools, heavy-weight services,” grounded in data-driven insights, and aimed at delivering comprehensive solutions.
From service products to service enterprises, and further to serving the entire industry, represents a significant leap forward for DXY Connect. However, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Li Tiantian believes that DXY Connect should first focus on the healthcare sector, where DXY has cultivated deep expertise over 18 years and which it knows best and handles most proficiently, in order to achieve this transition. The healthcare industry features a long value chain, a broad scope of services, and numerous user pain points, creating a strong need for platforms like DXY Connect to act as resource aggregators and value connectors. By leveraging lightweight tool-based platforms to integrate multiple stakeholders across the upstream and downstream industrial chains and consolidate diverse advantageous resources, DXY Connect can deliver high-quality, personalized services, thereby generating substantial value for long-tail users. By investing heavily in lightweight tools while building soft power in comprehensive services, and by combining these approaches to connect value, DXY Connect is poised to exert increasingly significant influence across the industry.