Yizhen: A Data-Driven Hepatitis Community Platform Begins Monetization and Files IPO Prospectus

Vertical niche markets represent new opportunities in mobile health, with some companies beginning to monetize after a period of exploration; YiZhen, which specializes in liver disease, is one such example.

Currently, Yizhen has approximately 110,000 users with liver disease, with a monthly active user rate of around one-third. The platform is served by approximately 400 part-time physicians.

Liver Diseases Are Suitable for Community-Based Care

Lou Haochuan, CEO of Yizhen, stated that starting with a single disease specialty would be more precise than building a community platform for a broad disease category. The decision to focus on liver diseases for their data-driven community platform was based on two considerations: first, his team had experience in selling liver disease medications and thus understood the patient population; second, liver disease patients often experience psychological fear after diagnosis and need a relatively private community to alleviate such anxiety. This is also why liver disease is well-suited for a community-based approach.

YiZhen initially entered the field of hepatitis B. Lou Haochuan explained that among various types of liver diseases, hepatitis B requires a relatively longer treatment duration and can be classified as a chronic disease, making it suitable for community-based management.

Moreover, a defining characteristic of liver disease is the sheer volume of data involved. According to Lou Haochuan, patients with hepatitis B undergo approximately 30 tests each month, accumulating substantial amounts of examination data over the years. Quantifying and standardizing these data to monitor changes in patients’ conditions requires appropriate auxiliary tools; therefore, the YiZhen APP initially entered the market by focusing on patient data management tools.

Compared to online consultations, Lou Haochuan believes that liver disease patients engage in more frequent social interactions. “On the Yizhen platform, doctors serve only in a supportive role. For liver disease patients, it is more important than online consultations to use technological means to monitor potential health risks and provide timely alerts, enabling physicians to intervene promptly,” Lou Haochuan told VCBeat. He noted that doctors interact with patients during fragmented periods of time, which are limited. Therefore, their professional value should be maximized without adding to their burden, while still ensuring high-quality patient care.

"Patients Connecting with Patients"

The core function of YiZhen is to rapidly recognize laboratory test data through optical recognition technology and transmit it to doctors, thereby improving management efficiency for both physicians and patients. According to Lou Haochuan, YiZhen’s OCR technology can perform real-time recognition even without an internet connection.

Lou Haochuan believes that medical data of patients in China is basically held by healthcare institutions. After patients proactively upload and synchronize their laboratory test results to doctors, the doctors can independently use these data for scientific research. Subsequently, YiZhen can also leverage such data for patient health management.

After accumulating approximately 30,000 case records through its tool-based approach, YiZhen began structuring the data to help patients find others with similar conditions.

This is a precision-matching approach based on user data, including medication records, disease follow-up data, behavioral data, and geolocation data. It helps patients with liver disease find peers who see the same doctor, visit the same hospital, use the same medications, or even have similar liver function profiles. According to Lou Haochuan, such communities enable niche groups with shared topics and similar disease conditions to rapidly coalesce, thereby fostering greater trust more quickly.

After establishing trust online, Yizhen also conducts regular offline activities to provide psychological counseling for users. In the future, it will collaborate with non-profit organizations to hold events, drawing on their mature experience.

Business Model: Home Blood Collection, E-commerce……

Lou Haochuan believes that liver disease services are bundled offerings tailored to specific scenarios, such as product services originating from consultations or even social interactions, encompassing medical care, pharmaceuticals, laboratory testing, and more.

Home-based blood sample collection marks the first monetization attempt for YiZhen’s liver disease management tools and community, with market feedback exceeding Lou Haochuan’s expectations. Typically, hepatitis B patients need to visit hospitals regularly for blood tests. Although these visits are partially covered by medical insurance, they are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Home-based phlebotomy, designed from a patient-centric perspective, helps reduce their time costs. Currently, YiZhen partners with third-party platforms to provide home-based blood collection services, earning a revenue share. Patients pay out-of-pocket, but the price is lower than that of hospitals.

Furthermore, on its WeChat platform, Yi Zhen has partnered with Chunyu Doctor to launch an overseas medical care program for hepatitis C, offering a comprehensive suite of services including consultations, data collection, and offline airport pick-up and drop-off.

In April this year, the YiZhen Liver Disease Community will launch a new version, integrating tools and community features within the App, while also embedding e-commerce into specific scenario-based frameworks. Competition in the chronic disease community sector is not merely technological. According to Lou Haochuan, “While technology is an important approach, the key to breaking through in the highly competitive healthcare market lies in three core capabilities: effectively attracting users, engaging merchants, and integrating resources.”

Next, Yi Zhen Liver Disease will also integrate upstream and downstream industry resources. Leveraging big data such as user behavior and health checkup reports, it will deliver precisely targeted content and services to users.

To boost usage frequency, YiZhen will introduce medication reminders for both patients and physicians, as well as launch smart reminder pill bottles, among other initiatives. Moreover, YiZhen is expanding into multiple specialized liver disease segments, including hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and autoimmune hepatitis. “If our tool-based community achieves significant scale, it would not be impossible to pivot back to serving as a physician follow-up tool,” stated Lou Haochuan.

Currently, YiZhen Liver Disease has secured millions of yuan in Pre-A financing from Guangxin Capital and is seeking a new round of funding. The founding team of YiZhen includes Lou Haochuan, who brings sales and management experience from a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, former marketing directorship at Teambition, and CRO project management expertise. Other core team members include a senior hacker with a Computer Science degree from Tsinghua University and a former top sales executive at Roche.