Medlinker: The Doctor-Centric Platform Backed by Tencent and Alibaba

Medlinker, a company focused on building a social networking platform for physicians (hereinafter referred to as “Medlinker”), has just completed a Series B financing round worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars. This round was led by Tencent, with Yunfeng Capital participating as a co-investor. Medlinker now boasts nearly 100,000 real-name verified physicians and a team of approximately 200 employees. The company achieved these impressive milestones in less than one year.

When asked about the key milestones in Medlinker’s growth, Wang Shirui paused for a few seconds before recounting the following case: One evening, a physician from a Grade 3A hospital in Hunan Province sought assistance on the Medlinker platform for a treatment plan for a complex and difficult-to-diagnose condition. Over the following week, approximately 10 cities across China, 20 hospitals, eight medical professors, and more than ten experts participated in the case discussion, ultimately devising an optimal treatment regimen.

For Wang Shirui, helping doctors solve problems and enabling more physicians to collaborate efficiently is far more exhilarating than the data metrics on the Medlinker platform. On the day the number of verified physicians on the Medlinker APP surpassed 50,000, Wang celebrated by sending a red packet in the company’s WeChat group. The total amount was only 80 yuan, and he jokingly referred to himself as stingy. In reality, Wang simply did not want his team to place excessive emphasis on incremental data growth. “If you build a high-quality product with an excellent user experience, data growth will naturally follow.”

Returning to Wang Shirui’s original vision in founding Medlinker: to create a comprehensive service platform for physicians. Starting from pure physician social networking, it has continuously expanded to offer a wider range of services tailored to doctors.

Wang Shirui

Two Major Ventures

The idea for Wang Shirui to found Medlinker first took root during his postdoctoral fellowship in oral medicine in the United States. While in the U.S., Wang was exposed to relatively mature physician social networking platforms such as ResearchGate, Doximity, and Figure 1, which prompted him to consider whether these models could be implemented in China.

“Serious and professional” are the two key characteristics that Wang Shirui identified in foreign physician social networking apps, which Medlinker has drawn upon: strictly adhering to real-name registration to ensure user quality. “At the time, we were taking a certain risk. Strict real-name verification raised the barrier to entry for users, which would slow down user growth, while our competitors were busy chasing volume.”

Medlinker’s second bold move was to recruit physician users from offline channels.

Wang Shirui told VCBeat that Medlinker dispatched a 30-person team and, over the course of three months, succeeded in recruiting 30,000 physicians to register with real names on the Medlinker app. Although Wang declined to disclose the specific tactics used to attract such a large number of physicians in a short period, he explained his rationale for persisting with offline promotion: “Our market research revealed that online conversion rates are low, while costs are no lower than those of offline efforts.” This is because most apps relying on online promotion operate on a cash-burning subsidy model. “Physicians who have the time to chase online subsidies are not our target users.”

This risk has existed since Wang Shirui first planned to establish Medlinker.

Before pursuing his postdoctoral studies in the United States, Wang Shirui had participated in a startup venture, but Medlinker represents his true entrepreneurial endeavor. Difficulties, challenges, and risks typically associated with entrepreneurship hardly crossed Wang Shirui’s mind. “As long as I believe something is right and am genuinely passionate about it, I will find a way to make it happen. I rarely give much thought to other constraints or conventions.”

It has proven that the fearless spirit of pioneers has enabled Yilian to stay ahead of its peers.

According to Wang Shirui, Medlinker’s core data metrics significantly outperform those of its peers. The platform’s physician user base is growing at an average rate of 10,000 per month, with a daily active user (DAU) rate of 10%. Furthermore, Yang Zhou, Medlinker’s Marketing Director, stated that only 5% of Medlinker’s physicians overlap with those on other similar social platforms, and approximately 20% of its users hold the title of associate chief physician or higher. After initially acquiring more than 30,000 physician users through offline channels, Medlinker gradually opened its online registration and verification portal for physicians. Currently, the ratio of physicians acquired through offline versus online channels stands at 1:1.

Social networking places greater emphasis on relationship chains.

At the inception of Medlinker, an inevitable question from investors was: What distinguishes you from DXY?

Wang Shirui responded that DXY is more like a portal site in the healthcare industry, with an emphasis on community; whereas Medlinker aims to build a social platform, where social networking places greater emphasis on relationship chains.

Let’s take a look at how Medlinker builds the relational network among physicians.

The main functions of Medlinker can be divided into two major parts: real-name communication and anonymous communication.

In the real-name communication section, physicians can add colleagues of interest based on specialty departments, follow them, or send friend requests. The information feed in the real-name section is derived partly from the user’s own “Physician Circle” social network, and partly from user-generated content (UGC). This UGC primarily consists of two core features of the Medlinker App’s real-name communication module: Q&A and case discussions.

The Q&A feature resembles the popular Q&A section of Zhihu Daily, with content primarily divided into two categories: one covers public topics related to healthcare, and the other addresses academic medical questions. Previously, Medlinker also featured a voting function, which has now been integrated into the Q&A module.

From Wang Shirui’s perspective, every voting initiative is essentially a question.

“Voting is now merely a supplementary tool, serving as an adjunct to the Q&A feature; physicians can initiate relevant polls after further discussion following the launch of a Q&A session,” introduced Yang Zhou. “Previously, when voting functioned as a standalone feature, physicians often experienced some confusion, resulting in relatively low usage frequency. Currently, however, physicians utilize the voting feature much more frequently.”

In fact, integrating Q&A and voting features is something Medlinker has always been doing: constantly simplifying.

Wang Shirui told VCBeat that the app initially designed and discussed within Medlinker was intended to carry far more functions than it does now, which is precisely a common ailment among domestic internet healthcare apps. In contrast, foreign internet healthcare apps tend to focus deeply on specific niche areas. Wang Shirui believes this represents the future trend, noting that even social networking features must remain focused.

The anonymous discussion section is primarily known as the “Midnight Ward.” This is an anonymous forum where physicians can vent frustrations or express their emotions, and this relatively safe and reliable platform for emotional support has been well received by users. The Midnight Ward was initially open only from midnight to 2:00 a.m. daily, but its operating hours have now been adjusted from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the following day—a time frame that coincides with the night shifts of on-call physicians. “This section has now become more like an ‘Evening Shift Ward,’” introduced Yang Zhou.

Wang Shirui made no secret of the fact that “Midnight Ward” drew inspiration from the social platform “Wumi.” Leveraging the strengths of others for one’s own benefit is also a way for Medlinker to continuously optimize and enhance user experience. In addition, the Medlinker APP features a “Discover” section, which focuses on operations and includes content such as Topic Square and Medlinker events.

Big Data Monetization

In August last year, while Medlinker was still in the team-building phase, it secured RMB 3 million in angel investment from Ceyuan Ventures and PreAngel. Six months later, Medlinker raised several million U.S. dollars in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital. Another six months on, Medlinker closed its Series B financing round.

Following this round of financing, Medlinker aims to expand its physician user base to 400,000–500,000 within one year, covering nearly all outstanding physicians at China’s Grade A tertiary hospitals.

Only when there is a sufficient number of physicians can the Medical Alliance platform accumulate enough case data to realize the plan for developing online clinical practice guidelines.

“Medical authority currently remains in the hands of traditional print academic media, which is highly detrimental to the timely dissemination and sharing of medical information.” Wang Shirui recounted a personal experience: an article he submitted to an academic journal was not published until more than a year later. This incident not only angered him but also strengthened his resolve to leverage internet-based solutions to break down barriers in academic information exchange.

Leveraging the data resources accumulated on the Yilian platform, Wang Shirui is also planning more viable business models, such as integrating with wearable devices and establishing connections with insurance companies, as well as conducting academic promotion of related products in collaboration with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. “The specific operational model is still under further planning, but we are committed to enabling physicians to earn income with greater dignity.”

In addition to providing a social platform for academic exchange, Medlinker will assume a broader role in serving physicians. Wang Shirui predicts that with the liberalization of multi-site practice for doctors in the future, more physicians employed within the public healthcare system will leave their institutions, leading to the establishment of a new ecosystem. In response, Medlinker will strengthen its services aimed at helping physicians build their personal brands.

Yang Zhou stated that Medlinker does not rule out providing corresponding subsidies to physicians in the future. However, before implementing such subsidies, Medlinker will conduct thorough validation to address key questions: whether subsidies will indeed increase physician engagement compared to no subsidies, which types of physicians are suitable for subsidies and which are not, and how to determine the optimal subsidy level.

When asked about the core competitive advantages of Wang Shirui Medical Alliance, Wang Shirui humbly stated, “I don’t think we have any particular advantages.”

Since founding the company, Wang Shirui has often treated his office as home, with spending nights there becoming the norm. “We must strive to move faster; at this stage, only by accelerating can we avoid being overtaken by latecomers.” While maintaining this sense of urgency, Wang Shirui also needs to lead his team in continuously sustaining innovative vitality and momentum, which constitutes the sole competitive barrier capable of withstanding external pressures. However, on this front, Wang Shirui believes that Medlinker still has considerable room for improvement.

Starting out in Chengdu, Medlinker has now established branch offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. While its core operations and product teams have relocated from Chengdu to Beijing, the technical team remains in Chengdu. On one hand, Chengdu boasts competitive IT infrastructure and talent; on the other, Wang Shirui believes that, compared to the overheated internet bubble in Beijing, Chengdu offers a more conducive environment for focused work. This calmness is clearly an essential soft skill for refining a high-quality product.