KingYingjie Aims to Become China's First Listed Medical Education Platform: Founder Zhao Hongfeng Unveils Strategic Blueprint
The market for medical education and training is vast. Zhao Hongfeng, who transitioned from judicial examination training, has been cultivating this sector for a decade. His ambition is to make his Jinyingjie Medical Examination Platform the first listed company of its kind in the A-share market. Armed with the concepts of “Big Health” and “Big Education,” Zhao Hongfeng is full of confidence in the future.
On November 26, Jin Yingjie held a briefing on its Series B financing round in Beijing. Taking this opportunity, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) conducted an exclusive interview with Zhao Hongfeng, Founder and Chairman of Jin Yingjie Education Group, to hear him recount the journey that has made Jin Yingjie China’s leading platform for medical licensing exam preparation, as well as his vision for the future.
Before venturing into medical licensing exam education, Zhao Hongfeng had already achieved modest success in the field of judicial examination training. The legal and political exam training company he founded, Zhengfa Yingjie, earned him his first significant fortune. However, given the limited size of the judicial examination market, Zhao, unwilling to rest on his laurels, began expanding into the larger market for medical licensing exam training.
Zhao Hongfeng, Chairman of Jinyingjie Education Group
“The market size for judicial examination training is relatively small, making it impossible to spawn a company valued at hundreds of billions. In contrast, the audience for medical licensing examination training exceeds one million people. With those who have not passed and new registrants added each year, coupled with ongoing professional training and career advancement opportunities, a positive cycle is formed,” said Zhao Hongfeng. Underlying this is another logic: following the implementation of healthcare reform policies, qualification requirements for medical practitioners have become stricter, making certification an “essential necessity.”
In 2009, Zhao Hongfeng began shifting the operational focus toward medical licensing exam training. Leveraging the experience accumulated in the judicial examination sector, Zhao recognized that brand equity is the cornerstone of any training institution. At that time, the certification exam market was just emerging and lacked standardization and order. Many training organizations were secretly selling exam questions and answers, and some candidates even requested similar services from Zhao. However, he refused all such requests without exception. His reasoning was straightforward: “For Jin Yingjie to sustain its growth and establish a lasting presence in the industry, brand reputation is paramount. While selling exam answers may generate quick profits, such gains are not sustainable.”
After establishing a solid reputation, Jin Yingjie’s business began to grow. To rapidly expand its market scale, franchising emerged as the optimal strategy. By actively recruiting franchisees, Jin Yingjie quickly expanded its presence across China. According to Zhao Hongfeng, by 2010, Jin Yingjie had over 100 affiliated branch schools nationwide, with the current figure exceeding 200. Although franchising enables rapid scaling, it inevitably poses challenges in management and quality control. Therefore, while vigorously developing franchised campuses, Jin Yingjie also began establishing company-owned campuses across China, ensuring that their scale grew in tandem with that of the franchised locations. Adopting the approach of “pursuing both strategies with equal determination,” Zhao Hongfeng started to focus on the division of responsibilities among franchised schools after achieving a certain market scale. Despite the continued expansion of franchised campuses, quality has become Zhao Hongfeng’s primary concern.
“Different affiliated campuses can serve different functions; larger ones can offer in-person classes, while smaller ones can act as our agency outlets, helping us attract more people,” said Zhao Hongfeng.
As Jin Yingjie diversified its channels, it also began to emphasize diversity in content dissemination. Books, videos, and offline in-person instruction constitute Jin Yingjie’s “three core pillars,” which together form a synergistic strategy.
The primary driver behind this diversified content strategy is Zhao Hongfeng’s deep understanding of the target audience for medical licensing examinations. “Some trainees only require online video lectures, others prefer a combination of videos and textbooks, while those with weaker self-directed learning motivation may benefit more from intensive offline classroom instruction.” Prioritizing students’ needs is a core principle upheld by Jin Yingjie. Zhao Qingle, an exclusively contracted instructor for the Stomatologist Licensing Examination at Jin Yingjie, elaborated in our interview on the company’s student-oriented educational philosophy.
According to Zhao Qingle, Jin Yingjie has established a textbook development team comprising dozens of members, primarily consisting of graduate and master’s students in pharmaceutical sciences as well as clinical experts. This composition ensures that the textbooks effectively integrate theoretical knowledge with practical application. The company has edited and published training materials covering physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, with multiple volumes available for each category. Centered around these textbooks, video resources have been produced; dedicated QR codes are provided on every page and for each chapter, allowing learners to instantly scan and access corresponding instructional videos whenever they encounter difficulties.
“Land, sea, and air—a triad” is Zhao Qingle’s summary of Jin Yingjie’s medical examination content system. In addition, Jin Yingjie places significant emphasis on cultivating students’ practical skills, offering training that goes beyond mere exam preparation. As many students come from grassroots healthcare positions, Jin Yingjie aims to enhance their hands-on operational capabilities through its training programs, thereby contributing to the development of a robust talent pipeline in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
“Alignment with the company’s values and spirit was the most important reason I chose Jinyingjie. Here, training is not just about passing exams; more importantly, it is about contributing to the entire healthcare system,” said Zhao Qingle.
Zhao Hongfeng’s next steps further demonstrate that Jin Yingjie’s student-oriented philosophy is more than just empty rhetoric. According to him, Jin Yingjie will build a pharmaceutical and medical talent pool through its training services, with plans to offer skills training and job placement recommendations for students who pass the relevant examinations in the future. Additionally, Jin Yingjie will participate in establishing certain offline clinics. These clinics will serve as venues for practical skills training, and outstanding students may apply for the entrepreneurship fund established by Jin Yingjie to co-found their own clinics in joint ventures with the company.
“Through this approach, we aim to penetrate the medical industry chain. If our training programs can secure the upstream supply of healthcare talent, we will then move into the downstream segment to deliver end-to-end services,” said Zhao Hongfeng.
This learner-centric approach to building a medical talent pool also opens up significant growth potential for Jinyingjie’s future. The company is poised to evolve into a full-industry-chain medical group, encompassing comprehensive healthcare services that integrate education and examinations, talent development, and professional practice. According to Zhao Hongfeng’s strategic plan, Jinyingjie aims to establish a training system that begins with qualification examinations and extends to professional title advancement and continuing education. By collaborating with medical and pharmaceutical institutions, the company will both supply skilled professionals and provide specialized training. This initiative is already underway, with partnerships established with multiple pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy chains, including Xiuzheng Pharmaceutical, Wantong Pharmaceutical, Pingmin Pharmacy, and Renhe Group.
“A key pathway to achieving this goal is the expansion of the student base and the establishment of a talent database. What Jinyingjie has done is to offer online courses free of charge to attract learners, rapidly capture market share, introduce a training system, and build a talent pool. ‘The future will undoubtedly be driven by the internet and the accumulation of big data. We have taken a critical step in leveraging the internet by making online courses free, and we will further provide various teaching and auxiliary methods, such as live streaming and VR videos, in the future.’”
The most prominent company associated with the free-to-play strategy mentioned by Zhao Hongfeng is Qihoo 360, which rapidly captured the largest market share among domestic competitors in its category by offering its products for free. Although operating in a different sector, Qihoo 360’s approach may offer valuable lessons. After driving online traffic, Jin Yingjie gradually converts this traffic into a steady stream of student enrollments, thereby enabling the organic accumulation of talent pools and big data assets.
Regarding the cost implications of going free, Zhao Hongfeng ran the numbers. The primary cost is course production, a fixed expense of approximately RMB 20 million, which will be amortized as the user base grows. The second component is bandwidth costs, which are relatively minor and negligible given Jin Yingjie’s scale. Prior to this shift, annual revenue from online courses stood at around RMB 10 million. Therefore, the overall cost after transitioning to a free model remains manageable. In light of the disruptive impact on the industry and future strategic plans, such costs are well within acceptable limits.
Furthermore, Jin Yingjie had previously received capital injection from Hongtao Shares, thereby facing no financial pressure. In recent years, Hongtao Shares has acquired multiple educational institutions, with which Jin Yingjie may achieve synergistic effects.
As this interview took place on the eve of Jin Yingjie’s public announcement regarding its Series B financing, we have exclusively learned that the lead investor in this round is Huahong Fund, with an investment amount of RMB 50 million in exchange for a 10% equity stake. “The financing amount for this round is RMB 50 million. In fact, we were already profitable prior to this investment. The objectives of bringing in this investment are threefold: first, to expand our teaching faculty; second, to increase investment in book publishing; and third, to establish an internet and big data center,” stated Zhao Hongfeng.
According to our understanding, Jin Yingjie frequently enters into exclusive agreements with training instructors, covering both exclusive teaching rights and exclusive video rights. Zhao Qingle, a training instructor for the National Licensed Dentist Examination, explained that this approach enhances instructor loyalty and specialization. In addition to signing exclusive contracts, Jin Yingjie places significant emphasis on building its faculty team by implementing an instructor elimination system and establishing a tiered development structure, thereby creating a highly specialized and efficient teaching team.
As the core of teaching content, textbooks naturally receive significant attention. The newly allocated funds will be used to expand the editorial team and enhance the integration of textbooks with other content formats, thereby achieving a synergistic effect.
Third is the construction of internet and big data centers. It is reported that Jin Yingjie will soon launch video live-streaming services. Zhao Hongfeng’s rationale is that video live streaming offers stronger interactivity compared to online courses. Throughout the entire exam preparation process, regular live sessions will encourage candidates to prepare in real time and facilitate immediate communication with instructors and teaching assistants. On another front, the big data center has already been established, with initial investments amounting to tens of millions of yuan. In addition to a medical talent database, this data center will also aggregate data on healthcare practitioners and other related information. With control over such data, there are multiple possibilities for its utilization.
Finally, Zhao Hongfeng provided an interpretation and outlook on the 2017 work plan and the medium-to-long-term strategic plan for the next five years. He stated that in 2017, Jin Yingjie’s online courses would continue to be offered free of charge, with a focus on strengthening live streaming and personalized online tutoring. The company aims to achieve profitability through online traffic generation combined with offline offerings, including textbooks, premium classes, and live courses, thereby covering all candidates in the mid-to-high-end segments. Following the completion of its Series B financing, Jin Yingjie will continue to increase investment in faculty resources, constantly broaden its existing product categories, and expand from current offerings—such as licensing examinations for practicing physicians, licensed pharmacists, and nurses—into continuing education, professional title certification, postgraduate medical entrance exams, and overseas programs, thereby establishing a full industry chain for medical training.Jin Yingjie places great emphasis on candidate experience and service. In 2017, the company will establish a big data platform and develop more internet-based software and products tailored to candidates’ needs. It will prioritize candidates’ learning experiences by enhancing and perfecting its existing service system. The company also plans to acquire upstream and downstream enterprises in the medical training sector, such as medical forums and medical portals, to build high-quality partnerships.In the future, Jin Yingjie will gradually acquire medical and nursing universities to establish medical schools; set up a healthcare-focused headhunting firm to recommend outstanding trainees; and create a medical skills enhancement base to train more talented professionals through advanced medical technology training. Additionally, it aims to build a comprehensive “Great Health” and “Great Medical” platform to bridge communication between doctors and patients. Ultimately, Jin Yingjie seeks to realize a complete, full-industry-chain medical service ecosystem.
While closing its Series B round, Jinyingjie has also initiated the process for its Series C financing. According to Zhao Hongfeng, the company is currently in discussions with strategic investors such as Fosun Pharma and AliHealth, aiming not only to secure capital but also to achieve business synergies.
“Jin Yingjie is now aiming for an initial public offering, in terms of both scale and profitability.” In the near future, Jin Yingjie will also collaborate with multiple pharmaceutical funds to expand its footprint and establish a full-industry-chain medical group.