Miao Health Files IPO Prospectus: Building an Integrated Digital Health Management Platform

In the past two years, China’s internet healthcare industry has been at the forefront of attention, becoming a hotspot for entrepreneurship and venture capital. However, as time has passed, the industry has gradually encountered certain challenges. Beyond policy and technical issues, the most prominent challenge is vertical specialization. For startups, focusing on a vertical niche undoubtedly offers the highest development efficiency. Yet, health management is a specialized field that requires comprehensive solutions. Determining how to better assist users in achieving effective health management is an essential path for the industry’s growth.

In fact, companies abroad have long introduced integrated health management models. One type is the big data platforms launched by Apple and Google, which construct a health management ecosystem with data as the core link. The other type provides comprehensive health management platforms through integrated operations and maintenance (O&M) technologies, effectively addressing users’ health management needs by “integrating vertical applications and ensuring efficient O&M.” While Chinese tech giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT) are already active in the former area, few domestic enterprises have followed suit in the latter.

For example, “Miao Jiankang,” a brand under China’s Sanpower Group, has launched a mobile health management platform service based on the “B2B2C” model. This service aims to “provide customized mobile health management platforms to industry clients and their end users,” constituting an integrated health management platform.

Unlike many domestic health-focused apps that primarily target end users, Miao Jiankang provides a comprehensive cloud-based health solution. The app serves as the interface for end users, backed by a suite of modules including health management and medical guidance services, forming a complete mobile internet-based health solution. Furthermore, this solution is customizable and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of industry clients.

Similar solutions to those offered by “Miao Health” already exist abroad, such as products from the U.S. company Welltok. In terms of app functionality, Miao Health primarily leverages operational mechanisms to incentivize users to “manage” their own health, thereby improving their health outcomes and ultimately reducing healthcare costs. From the perspective of customized software services, Miao Health provides industry clients with a “low-barrier” entry into the internet health sector and enhances their core businesses by offering value-added health management services to end users.

What sets Welltok apart from similar products abroad is its sharper focus on the needs of industry clients. It primarily provides customized health management solutions to government agencies, insurance companies, and corporate employers, aiming to reduce the costs incurred by governments or enterprises due to health issues among the general population or employees, while improving public health outcomes. “Integrating diverse health management functional modules, leveraging operational mechanisms to motivate users to actively manage their health and enhance their well-being, and minimizing disease incidence to the greatest extent possible” constitutes Welltok’s core competitive advantage.

The Miao Health team stated that its platform has reached one million users, and its product philosophy has garnered attention from a segment of consumers despite limited marketing investment. Furthermore, a significant number of users from Sanpower Group’s traditional channels have already converted to online consumption, providing Miao Health with potential incremental user growth through the conversion of existing customers. Recently, several commercial banks, insurance companies, and health checkup institutions have been negotiating collaborations with the Miao Health platform. Therefore, the projected cumulative user base of 30 million over the next three years is not unfounded.

Whether Miao Health will emerge as the fastest-growing leader in the mobile health sector remains to be seen, but what is certain is that it will undoubtedly have a positive impact on promoting the development of China’s health industry.