Jiang Tianjiao: Monetization Is the Essential Path to Building a Trustworthy and Authoritative Online Consultation Platform

On March 23, at the launch event for the new book *Healthcare + Internet: Reconstructing the Healthcare Ecosystem*, Jiang Tianjiao, General Manager of the Strategic Development Department at Xunyi Wenyao, delivered a presentation on the “Online Consultation” section he authored in the book.

Jiang Tianjiao stated that while the current development of online consultation faces certain problems and challenges, advancing online consultation is an imperative task. Furthermore, the success of online consultation serves as a critical indicator for assessing whether the internet healthcare industry as a whole can achieve genuine development.

The internet healthcare industry, which began in 2013, has now been developing for three years. With a wide range of services including online health education and consultation, online medical consultations, doctor appointments, patient management, online medication purchases, and wearable devices, what should its business model look like? This question remains unanswered to this day.

In the internet sector, the sharing economy is a proven model, exemplified by companies like Didi Chuxing and Dianping. Didi connects drivers with passengers, while Dianping links merchants with consumers. Should healthcare also assume the role of an information intermediary? Jiang Tianjiao believes that online medical consultations can, in fact, play a more significant role.

Unlike Didi and Dianping, internet healthcare must do more than simply facilitate information matching. Whether all healthcare information can be fully connected via the internet remains a subject of public debate, and this is precisely the key challenge hindering the breakthrough development of online consultation services.

User demand for medical services falls into two categories: one involves seeking the most appropriate medical care at a hospital after symptom onset, while the other pertains to individuals who prefer not to visit a hospital and simply seek a solution.

In fact,The value of online medical consultations lies in providing solutions for users who prefer not to visit hospitals.Currently, the advantages of online medical consultations have been significantly demonstrated. Meanwhile, it also faces certain issues and challenges.

First, online medical consultations lack credibility and authority.Jiang Tianjiao stated, “Trust has always been the cornerstone of healthcare. Many experts and leading figures in various medical fields consider it the most critical attribute. If a healthcare provider fails to inspire trust, it is practically impossible to deliver subsequent medical services.” Furthermore, authority is also vital. Jiang Tianjiao noted that online consultation models require trustworthy and authoritative medical services. However, the challenge lies in the fact that current online consultations are largely offered as free services. The marginal cost of these resources is not zero; each additional consultation necessitates additional labor input, while medical resources remain scarce. This creates a significant contradiction between free services and scarce resources.

“To build a trustworthy and authoritative online medical consultation platform, I believe that implementing fees is an inevitable path.”

Because physicians are a profession with strong professional self-esteem. The disrespect of some patients for doctors' labor has resulted in a significant waste of already scarce medical resources.

Once online medical consultations become fee-based, physicians can no longer provide patients with vague advice such as “drink more water, exercise more, and get more rest,” which lacks any definitive conclusion. To ensure patients perceive value for their money, clear and definitive clinical judgments must be provided. However, under current laws and regulations, online platforms are prohibited from making definitive diagnoses, issuing prescriptions, or providing specific treatment recommendations.

This is also an issue that online medical consultations currently need to address. Jiang Tianjiao stated, “In the face of challenges, what truly adds value is proposing solutions rather than simply negating certain aspects. It is very easy to dismiss things, but extremely difficult to create real value.”

“For online medical consultations to achieve greater development, they must become more clinically oriented, rather than serving merely as advisory services.” Providing genuine medical services is an essential goal that online consultations must attain. Achieving this goal requires a phased approach.

Just as in the beginning, Amazon’s online book sales also faced significant challenges. Some argued that customers needed to flip through and browse a book before making a purchase decision; since online shopping did not allow for physical browsing, enabling such functionality would eliminate the need to buy altogether. They believed this model was unfeasible and that books could not be sold online. Subsequently, Amazon implemented various strategies, including reader reviews and page-flipping features that allowed users to preview content, thereby successfully realizing this model and achieving stronger book sales.

Resolving issues such as data acquisition and breaking down information silos will create more opportunities for online medical consultations. Jiang Tianjiao explained, “Patients are unable to collect and organize their own historical medical records, which prevents these records from serving as important references.”

Jiang Tianjiao stated, “If the online consultation model has not yet succeeded, then the journey of internet healthcare has only just begun and is far from reaching its full developmental potential.”I believe that the success of online consultations is a crucial indicator for assessing whether the internet healthcare industry as a whole has achieved genuine development.”