Jianke Completes Its Online Healthcare Puzzle with Six Physical Hospitals in One Year

Among pharmaceutical e-commerce companies venturing into the healthcare sector, Jianke is not the only one, but it is the most determined and the fastest-moving. Since 2017, Jianke has announced four acquisitions or construction projects in the medical field: Guangzhou Baiyun District Jingtai Hospital, Wuhan Xiongchu Hospital, Chongqing Jiulongpo Chronic Disease Management Hospital, and Hainan International Cloud Hospital. Jianke’sOnlineMedical infrastructure is blossoming across China.

According to Xie Fangmin, CEO of Jianke, the company plans to establish six offline physical hospitals this year. In addition to the four already announced, it will acquire offline physical hospitals in Hangzhou, Anhui, and other regions.

Xie Fangmin is firmly committed to expanding from pharmaceutical e-commerce into online healthcare. His vision is to integrate Jianke’s pharmaceutical and medical services, driving parallel growth along both tracks to create a closed-loop “Medical + Pharmaceutical” health service ecosystem, ultimately transforming Jianke into an integrated healthcare group encompassing both online medical care and pharmaceuticals.

As one of the earliest pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms in China, Jianke obtained the “Internet Drug Transaction Service Qualification Certificate” in 2009, becoming a legally qualified online pharmacy. This certificate was the fifth issued nationwide and the first in Guangdong Province.

In the early days of Jianke, Xie Fangmin leveraged his understanding of internet traffic to purchase a large volume of pre-roll, post-roll, and banner ads on video websites, successfully acquiring a substantial base of C-end consumers and retaining them through high-quality services.

“Why are we the only ones bold enough to invest in video ads? Because we have thoroughly calculated and confirmed the returns on such investments. Others lack both the awareness and the technical capability, which is why they hesitate to invest,” said Xie Fangmin.

This case also demonstrates Xie Fangmin’s strong emphasis on technology and his adeptness at gauging internet traffic trends. Consequently, with the rise of internet healthcare, he keenly recognized that online medical services would become the next major growth opportunity and a significant channel for user acquisition.

Xie Fangmin, CEO of Jianke

Jianke applied for the “Pocket Doctor” trademark as early as 2011, predating the launch of most domestic mobile health and internet healthcare platforms. However, due to policy constraints, market conditions, and other factors, the internet healthcare sector remained immature, and Jianke’s online healthcare initiatives stayed in a dormant state.

By last year, all necessary conditions were in place for Jianke to enter a period of rapid expansion in online healthcare. First, Jianke’s pharmaceutical e-commerce business was in a phase of stable growth and had achieved profitability, ensuring ample capital. Second, the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment systems and the liberalization of multi-site practice for physicians created favorable conditions for the development of internet-based healthcare. Additionally, as mobile health and lightweight consultation platforms helped cultivate patient habits, internet healthcare began to reach a turning point.

Xie Fangmin also stated, “To ensure survival, Jianke initially focused on pharmaceuticals, which generated cash flow and profits, enabling the company to stay afloat and acquire the capacity to expand its online healthcare services.” He further noted that mobile health, or internet-based healthcare, lacks stable revenue streams and profitable business models; integration with pharmaceutical e-commerce can offer greater possibilities for monetization.

Nevertheless, Xie Fangmin is well aware of the difficulties in expanding internet healthcare. Challenges such as capital investment, technological reserves, and physician resources have become major obstacles for all enterprises aspiring to enter the internet healthcare sector.

In January last year, Jianke publicly announced the completion of a $100 million Series A financing round, marking the company’s first fundraising since its establishment nearly 10 years ago. Following this round, Xie Fangmin stated to the public that Jianke would vigorously expand its online healthcare business, which would become the company’s key focus in the next phase.

At the “West Lake Forum” held a few months later, Xie Fangmin stated that venturing into the online healthcare business requires substantial capital, but Jianke already has sufficient funds on hand and will secure additional financing. He acknowledged that the path of online healthcare is arduous and that Jianke needs support from both investors and users. Nevertheless, Jianke remains steadfast in its commitment to moving forward.

Following this, Jianke’s online healthcare journey entered a period of rapid and turbulent expansion.

Plan Before You Act. Xie Fangmin has his own understanding of internet healthcare. He stated that internet healthcare should not start with large hospitals. Although large hospitals have advantages in medical resources, patients are already concentrated there, and doctors at these institutions lack both the motivation and the time to engage in internet healthcare. The breakthrough point for internet healthcare lies in small hospitals. It is essential to leverage internet technology to utilize the medical resources of small hospitals, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of their doctors, improve the utilization rate of medical resources, and address the issue of misallocation of medical resources. Therefore, Jianke’s internet healthcare initiatives will begin with small hospitals.

Furthermore, internet hospitals must be integrated with offline physical facilities. Since regulations prohibit physicians from conducting remote consultations directly with individual patients, a liaison point should be established between patients and online consulting physicians. Specifically, patients can engage in remote multidisciplinary consultations with specialists at tertiary hospitals through their local primary care physicians. This approach not only ensures regulatory compliance but also enhances the professional competencies of primary care providers, thereby facilitating the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment.

In terms of target populations, online consultations are better suited for non-initial visits, follow-up appointments, and patients with chronic diseases. Their consultation needs are relatively well-defined, and the high accessibility of online platforms makes them more suitable for delivering subsequent care via digital channels. Patients requiring non-initial visits or managing chronic conditions also significantly overlap with the consumer base of pharmaceutical e-commerce. Taking Jianke as an example, repeat purchases by chronic disease patients account for over 90% of total orders. The integration of internet healthcare and pharmaceutical e-commerce offers greater convenience to patients and shares more commonalities.

Therefore, it can be summarized that small and medium-sized hospitals, physical entities, and chronic disease management are the key words for Jianke’s internet healthcare. From specific implementation cases, it is also evident that Jianke’s expansion into internet healthcare has followed these key themes.

On March 8 this year, Jianke’s first internet hospital was established in Baiyun District, Guangzhou. Jianke completed the first step in building its internet healthcare infrastructure by acquiring Jingtai Hospital in Baiyun District.

Guangzhou Baiyun Jingtai Hospital is a non-profit medical institution approved and established by the Guangzhou Municipal Health Bureau in 1997. It is a comprehensive primary-level community hospital integrating community medical care, prevention, healthcare, rehabilitation, and scientific research. Currently, the hospital is a designated medical insurance provider under the Guangzhou Medical Insurance Program, serving over 6,000 enrolled patients, with an average annual outpatient volume of nearly 100,000 visits.

Jianke’s acquisition of Jingtai Hospital in Baiyun District aims to explore an internet hospital model in collaboration with community hospitals, thereby providing internet-based medical services more directly to local residents. Meanwhile, it will take over the management of the hospital pharmacy to prepare for the outflow of prescriptions.

Xie Fangmin’s rationale for this approach lies in the fact that community hospitals and clinics typically process only 200–300 medication orders per day, resulting in limited drug sales volume, weak bargaining power in procurement, and frequent shortages of many medications. Having operated pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms for many years, Jianke possesses significant advantages in the pharmaceutical supply chain, enabling it to comprehensively meet the medication needs of community hospitals and address their shortcomings.

Additionally, VCBeat’s hands-on experience has revealed that physicians from Baiyun District Jingtai Hospital are already providing consultations on the Jianke Mobile Health app “Jianke Doctor.” It is foreseeable that Jianke Doctor will leverage a broader pool of external physicians and those affiliated with its own hospitals to enrich its mobile healthcare provider resources.

Jianke Doctor APP

Following its acquisition of Jingtai Hospital in Baiyun District, Jianke has now acquired Wuhan Xiongchu Hospital. This hospital is a specialized institution integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine, with capabilities in medical education, scientific research, and disease prevention. It focuses on the development of services such as rehabilitation for elderly patients with chronic diseases, healthcare, and the integration of medical care with elder care. Moving forward, Jianke will leverage this physical hospital entity to align resources with its operational center in Wuhan.

In addition to direct acquisitions, Jianke has also adopted a self-built approach to establish physical hospitals in Chongqing and Hainan.

On June 22, Jianke signed a cooperation agreement with the Chongqing Municipal Government, announcing plans to establish an “Internet + Chronic Disease Management” hospital in Jiulongpo District, Chongqing. With a total investment of RMB 200 million, the project will provide a diverse range of chronic disease medical services, including online consultations for chronic conditions, health service management, and mobile healthcare. Specific offerings will encompass outpatient and inpatient diagnostic and treatment services, health education, and basic public health services. The core initiatives focus on the management of common chronic diseases, rehabilitation for patients with common chronic conditions, and two-way referral systems with hospitals within the district and across the city.

On June 29, Jianke signed an agreement with the Qionghai Municipal Government of Hainan Province, announcing the construction of the Jianke Hainan International Cloud Hospital in the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone. The core services of the Jianke International Cloud Hospital project will focus on assisted reproduction, sports medicine, and chronic disease rehabilitation, including oncology treatment.

Signing Ceremony for Recommended Investment Projects in Hainan

Jianke Hainan International Cloud Hospital will leverage the financial strengths of Jianke and Kaixin Capital, along with its advantages in internet technology application, pharmaceutical resources, and chronic disease management expertise. By integrating leading international medical resources from institutions such as Harvard University and Yale University, it aims to establish a comprehensive, high-end international medical institution that integrates treatment, rehabilitation, and scientific research.

It is worth mentioning that participants in the Jianke Hainan Cloud Hospital project also include Kaixin Capital, an investor in Jianke’s Series A financing round, which further demonstrates the investors’ recognition of Jianke’s internet healthcare model.

In summary, small and medium-sized hospitals, physical entities, and chronic disease management constitute the core competitiveness of Jianke Internet Hospital, while acquisitions and self-built facilities are the key strategies in Jianke’s layout for internet healthcare.

Internet healthcare is a current "hotspot" in the medical and health sector. It accurately addresses the pain points and challenges of healthcare, leveraging internet technologies and platforms to partially resolve long-standing issues such as the mismatch between doctors and patients, high medical costs, and limited access to medical information.

Internet healthcare has developed rapidly in the past few years, covering over 100 million patients and doctors, with more than billions of online consultations/inquiries conducted. It has truly brought convenience to both patients and doctors, meeting patients' needs for consultation and diagnosis while generating income for doctors and other groups.

The development of internet healthcare is built on two foundations. First, there is growing acceptance of such platforms among both doctors and patients, with an increasing number engaging in online consultations. Second, capital continues to incubate internet healthcare platforms; given the current lack of clear profitability models, this financial support ensures their sustained development despite uncertain commercial prospects.

However, internet healthcare still faces many unresolved issues, such as policy compliance, medical resource allocation, security guarantees, and liability delineation. The recent leak of two “trial policies” has further sent shockwaves through the industry, leaving it in a state of fearful silence.

The policy states that internet-based diagnosis and treatment activities are limited to remote medical services between medical institutions and chronic disease management services provided by primary care institutions under signed contracts; practicing entities must obtain appropriate medical qualifications and are prohibited from establishing virtual medical institutions, among other restrictions. Although this document is merely an unpublished “draft for comment,” such requirements have nonetheless introduced greater uncertainty into the internet healthcare sector.

Jianke’s internet healthcare model, which primarily targets small and medium-sized physical hospitals and actively provides chronic disease management services, holds practical value to a certain extent.Xie Fangmin also stated that Jianke’s exploration of internet-based medical services will closely follow regulatory requirements, expanding its business while ensuring safety, reliability, and clear accountability.

Jianke started as a pharmaceutical e-commerce company. Xie Fangmin identified several key words for the development of pharmaceutical e-commerce: supply chain, technology, talent, management, and traffic. It can be said that Jianke has its own advantages and dominant position in each of these areas.

Taking the supply chain as an example, Jianke launched the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry’s first “Genuine Product Alliance” last year, partnering with Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Tongrentang, Baiyunshan, and other companies to guarantee direct supply of authentic branded products, thereby enhancing consumer trust in the products sold by Jianke.

Jianke has established cooperative relationships with more than 5,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers and has secured substantial sales agreements with international companies such as Eli Lilly and Abbott. Taking Abbott as an example, Jianke invested millions to renovate and upgrade its warehouses to meet the partner’s requirements. These collaborations have not only solidified Jianke’s strong relationships with upstream enterprises but also enhanced the capabilities of its supply chain in terms of both hardware and software. Furthermore, Jianke has partnered with pharmaceutical distribution companies such as Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings and Sinopharm Group, further optimizing its supply chain.

In addition, Jianke emphasizes the synergy between online and offline operations by establishing physical pharmacies in multiple locations to provide consumers with experiential spaces. According to its plan, Jianke’s number of offline stores will reach 50 this year, with a strategic focus on South and Central China. Furthermore, DTP (Direct-to-Patient) pharmacies represent another key area of development for Jianke; the company has currently established five DTP pharmacies in cities such as Guangzhou and Dongguan to meet patients’ needs for new and specialized medications.

Therefore, in Xie Fangmin’s vision, Jianke is not positioned merely as a single-purpose pharmaceutical e-commerce platform; rather, it aims to build a closed-loop health service ecosystem integrating “Internet + Pharmaceuticals + Hospitals + Patients,” ultimately creating a comprehensive smart health services platform.

Currently, Jianke’s pharmaceutical e-commerce business has achieved significant scale and is becoming increasingly mature, while its internet healthcare operations are advancing steadily. Jianke’s smart health service platform holds considerable promise.