MiYou Box Submits IPO Prospectus: Bridging Glucometers to Digital Diabetes Management

Editor’s Note from VCBeat: The diabetes market is one of the core segments in the internet healthcare industry. Battles over blood glucose meters have been ongoing, while Miyou Box has chosen an entrepreneurial path centered on collaboration with various stakeholders, drawing widespread attention. On April 3, a member of the VCBeat Entrepreneur Circle and co-founder of Miyou Box conducted a roadshow in the VCBeat Entrepreneur Circle WeChat group, providing a detailed account of Miyou Box’s entrepreneurial journey and market feedback.

Interviewee for This Issue: Wu Guanli

Bio of Wu Guanli: Co-founder of Miyou Box, Founder of Shucai Bang, Corporate Coach, MBA from the University of Illinois, and a senior member of the VCBeat Entrepreneur Circle. If you like him, please contact him:

Email:wuguanli@glufine.comWeChat: kilimanjaro5895

Roadshow Time：2015.4.3.  AM3:00-4：00

Host: E Partner Wan Yong

 

[Act 1 of the Roadshow]:

Wu Guanli’s Account of the Business Logic Behind the Miyou Box

1. What is the Miyou Box?

It is a middleware with data reading and transmission capabilities. It can read blood glucose data from 13 imported blood glucose meters with high market share, including those from Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, and Bayer (the meters themselves have storage functionality). The data is encrypted and transmitted to a cloud server via the device’s GPRS functionality, and then forwarded to the application. A similar product in the United States, called Glooko, has received RMB 170 million in investment.

2. One Diagram Explaining the Ecosystem of the Miyou Box



 

Ecosystem Overview:

The MiYou Box aims to bridge isolated data with the internet, providing data services for diabetes care institutions. Patients are the primary beneficiaries, gaining access to historical data previously stored in their blood glucose meters for analysis and utilization. Meanwhile, patients’ physicians can also access this data and identify the specific devices used for blood glucose monitoring.

Secondly, insurance companies and governments also benefit, as they utilize big data statistics to support decision-making for insurance providers.

Medical product vendors can also reach users and observe the effects of drugs, food, and other products.

3. Reflections on Entrepreneurship by Miyou Boxer

A. Positioning of Mobile Health Startups

"Integrating into closed, traditional domains through marginal innovation."

The pain of internet-based entrepreneurship lies in being dismissed as amateurs by experts in various specialized fields, particularly in the highly conservative healthcare industry, making it impossible to establish a disruptive model in the short term. Therefore, from the perspective of startup survival, we position ourselves to serve and complement professional domains by providing mobile health tools for diabetic patients and service institutions.

The process of this service represents the traditional sector’s familiarization with and acceptance of the Internet, serving as the prototype of mobile healthcare.

However, the response from the consumer market is precisely the opposite of that within the medical professional community: consumers are eager for healthcare to be replaced and disrupted. This discrepancy between demand and reality has meant that mobile health has seen almost no explosive growth over the past two years, nor has it delivered surprises to the investment community. This does not indicate that the mobile health market was overvalued; rather, it reflects the inherently gradual growth trajectory of telemedicine itself, as well as the patience and waiting period required for mobile internet teams to integrate into the traditional healthcare industry.

B. Entry Point

Since a marginalized innovation approach has been chosen, one should adhere to the traditional perceptions of the healthcare industry regarding brands and clinical competencies, rather than attempting to educate healthcare professionals and patients at the initial stage.

Take blood glucose meters as an example. The brand recognition and reliability of imported brands have been established over many years, which has significantly influenced user perception. Meanwhile, due to limitations in algorithms and test strip technology, traditional blood glucose meters have failed to disrupt the market dominance of imported brands in real-world usage scenarios. Therefore, we adopted a data cable model to avoid directly confronting the existing medical device market. Even with capital-driven efforts to penetrate this market, it would be difficult to compete with established manufacturers such as Sinocare and Yicheng in the short term. And even if we could rival these long-standing companies, what would our market share look like?

In short, developing a blood glucose meter feels somewhat like forcing the issue; capital may not be enthusiastic, the market may remain indifferent, and the outcomes may not meet your expectations.

C．2B OR 2C

Currently, a significant portion of apps adopt a B2C model, directly attracting patients. Due to the simplicity of this model, it is difficult to establish barriers to entry, making it hard for consumers to differentiate between products in the market.

We lack a competitive advantage in this area, so we have adopted a B2B approach to address previously unmet needs within the existing market by developing middleware that bridges blood glucose meters and mobile internet platforms. This strategy has shaped the current business model of Miyou Box, which provides software or hardware tools for merchants, hospitals, and diabetes management apps serving individuals with diabetes. As this market segment remains largely untapped, it presents a temporary blue ocean opportunity. Currently, merchants are highly willing to leverage this tool to enhance their service offerings and demonstrate strong readiness to pay for either the tool or the associated services.

D. Stock vs. Increment

Compared to Shenzhen, Beijing indeed lags behind in resources for various smart hardware devices. During our initial product exploration, we found that hardware with diverse functionalities has emerged in large numbers. Years of accumulation in traditional industries have given them significant advantages and allowed them to dominate extensive sales channels, while they are actively shifting online. The rarity of breakout hits among smart hardware in the medical industry is itself a telling signal. Among diabetes patients, the most widely used high-quality products are imported brands such as Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, and Bayer. These devices, endorsed by hospitals, recommended by physicians, and used long-term by patients, represent a substantial installed base. Secondary development based on this existing ecosystem is relatively straightforward; our solution is akin to providing diabetes patients with a USB drive capable of connecting to various computers for data transmission.

In marketing, it is widely acknowledged that the cost of making a secondary sale to an existing customer is one-fifth that of acquiring a new one. Therefore, we leverage the existing market for secondary marketing, which has an estimated size of 20 million.

E. Mild vs. Severe

In the realm of mobile healthcare under the mobile internet era, many teams have steered clear of hardware-intensive solutions. Compared with 2014, numerous articles have warned about the various pitfalls associated with smart hardware. However, in the current mobile healthcare market, while adopting hardware may seem like a reluctant move, it is nonetheless a clear strategic choice. When compared to the costs of online and offline promotional strategies for various apps, acquiring users through the Miyou Box proves decisively superior in terms of both acquisition cost and user retention.

After comprehensive consideration, this product is found to be not heavy at all.

F. How to Go Online

The biggest challenge in the early stage of mobile healthcare was not policy or funding, but how to achieve sustained and effective online engagement. The continuous attrition of both doctors and users in many blood glucose management apps has already proven this point. By leveraging users’ reliance on traditional devices, we introduced a wireless data box that does not disrupt their existing medical consumption habits. This approach allows data to be brought online independently of the app, thereby facilitating the transition to meaningful and sustained user engagement online.

For the 60% of patients who are elderly, the challenges of using smartphones and apps are not trivial. We have shifted our approach to smart devices, thereby bringing data online and providing services tailored to elderly patients. Precisely because the number of diabetes patients limited to online interactions remains relatively small, the market has yet to fully perceive the shifts and the mobilization of healthcare services.

G. Chronic Disease Management

Chronic disease is a pathological manifestation of an individual’s personality. A significant number of patients create a fertile ground for diabetes through lifestyle issues, leading to changes in various factors that trigger the onset of the disease. Improvement and recovery must also begin with lifestyle modifications. Changing one’s lifestyle may require more than just injections, medication, and doctor visits; it fundamentally demands a shift in mindset. In the context of diabetes management, this aligns with what is commonly known as the “Five Carriages”: dietary control, exercise therapy, pharmacological treatment, blood glucose monitoring, and diabetes education. These elements become long-term companions for patients with chronic conditions. They are highly detailed, cumbersome, and difficult to sustain, necessitating the support of various tools to alleviate the burden on patients.

H. Market

Before the mobile health market matures, patients are not the only users requiring services. Precisely because we are in a period of convergence between two markets, service providers from the traditional market also need to be served. This is one of the key challenges for mobile health startups and explains why so many entrepreneurial teams target physicians as their primary users. Looking at the entire healthcare market, every stakeholder in the existing ecosystem—patients, medical institutions, vendors, device manufacturers, government entities, and payers—needs to be served, engaged, and educated. Therefore, the user base of the mobile health market is far broader than that of the traditional healthcare market, resulting in a fundamentally different landscape.

 

[Roadshow Act II]:

Q&A with Wu Guanli and VCBeat’s Entrepreneur Circle Members

Question 1,Mihe is an intermediate product. How is customer stickiness? Who manages the data?

Wu Guanli: For anyone using a blood glucose meter, simply adding one extra action each day can ensure effective data management, enabling the data to be provided to their service provider for analysis and utilization. The manager is currently the patient’s existing service provider; our focus is on merchants.

 

Question 2- If Glooko is thriving in the U.S., Guanli Tongxue should be wary of its entry into the Chinese market. If it is underperforming, analyze the reasons and outline from which aspects or resources you plan to mitigate such risks.

Wu Guanli:Glooko has been operating for three years and is currently at Series B. Its user base likely correlates with its sales revenue. Early investors have consistently participated in follow-on rounds. Regarding Glooko’s entry into China, my view is that, first, it must adapt to the wide variety of domestically produced mobile phones in China; for instance, it is not compatible with Xiaomi devices, let alone other brands. This issue is well known among users who are familiar with Bluetooth pairing challenges.

 

Question 3.Is the information collected by the Miyou Box stored locally or on the backend?

Wu Guanli:Backend server + local mobile app.

 

Question 4.I’d like to ask: How can I maximize the visibility of my crowdfunding campaign among interested audiences?

Wu Guanli:“Seeing” begins with identifying the target audience. During this period, everyone is reading VCBeat, so you can make your voice heard on the channels they follow.

 

Question 5, To connect doctors and patients, the Miyou Box needs to add an extra step by requiring patients to use an additional device. This increases the complexity of usage. How can we encourage patients to be more willing to use it?

Wu Guanli: For chronic diseases such as diabetes, blood glucose levels are a critical indicator. If patients do not share this data with their physicians, it essentially forces everyone to guess the appropriate dosage of medication or insulin. Therefore, patient willingness is the primary prerequisite. Secondly, the Miyou Box involves minimal steps—comparable to using a standard glucometer, yet much simpler. The device features only a single button, making it extremely user-friendly for the elderly: a single press powers on the device and initiates data transmission, after which it automatically shuts down.

 

Question 6, what is the current pre-order volume for the Miyou Box?

Wu Guanli: A contract has already been secured for the pre-orders, and we are accelerating mass production.

 

Question 7: What is the current status of integration between the Miyou Box and blood glucose meters? Are there more collaborative efforts or resistance, and why?

Wu Guanli: Resistance is difficult to sustain; cooperation is the future. Foreign enterprises understand this principle even better.

 

Question 8: How is the data from the Miyou Box processed, and what value does it offer?

Wu Guanli: Currently, the data is being closed off and standardized, with encryption already applied. Next, we will explore how to analyze user data to benefit users. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would likely be interested, as the device can capture geographic location data and provide statistics on regional blood glucose levels.

 

Question 9: Are there legal risks associated with cracking the other party's communication protocol?

Wu Guanli: Reads the user's own data, equivalent to using a USB flash drive to access personal files.

 

Question 10: Such a great product, what is the pricing?

Wu Guanli: Retail price: 199 yuan.

 

 [Act III of the Roadshow]:

Wu Guanli Subjected to Onlookers from the Community and Interviewed

Following Wu Guanli’s roadshow, many community members continued to ask questions, numerous industry experts sought project collaborations, and well-known venture capital firms requested meetings. Wu Guanli remarked that he was overwhelmed with the demand.

Special thanks to the VCBeat community members for their enthusiastic questions, and to Wan Yong from E-Ban for his passionate moderation. If you are not yet a member of the VCBeat Entrepreneurship Circle and wish to pitch your project in the group, please follow the VCBeat WeChat official account (vcbeat) and leave us a message. We look forward to welcoming you.

VCBeat has previously reported on the Miyou Box. For more information, please click here.Here。