Five Key Elements for Leading the Billion-Dollar Health Big Data Market

2014 was a bumper year for the mobile health industry. According to statistics, there were more than 80 financing cases involving mobile health companies in 2014, nearly three times the total number of all financing deals in this sector over the previous five years combined. 2015 marked a year of cross-industry integration, with traditional internet firms, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, consumer electronics enterprises, and investment and financing institutions all entering the mobile health space, aiming to establish an early foothold in the blue-ocean market of personal health management.

On January 15, 2015, the Annual Conference of the International Medical Electronics and Personal Health Management Industry Expo was held at the Marco Polo Good Days Hotel in Shenzhen. Themed “Jointly Building Healthy Lifestyle Management, Winning Together in Smart Healthcare Opportunities,” the conference brought together 300 attendees, including executives from companies specializing in home medical care, mobile health, health big data, and health management, as well as angel investors and media representatives. Participants collectively reviewed the developments of 2014 and explored the industrial landscape and future directions of the mobile health sector for 2015. The forum’s lineup of keynote speakers featured senior leaders from leading enterprises across various fields, including Yu Wenxin, Chief Pharmaceutical Industry Analyst at Haitong Securities; Dr. Cao Yang, General Manager of Dimetech; Ouyang Jun, Chairman of Blood Glucose High-Tech; Zhang Qian, Chief Scientist at New Elements; Wang Ming, Co-founder of JiuYi160; Wang Youyu, Deputy General Manager of Beitai Health; and Zhao Xin, Deputy General Manager of Shenzhen Creative Era Exhibition Co., Ltd.



Market Size: The Wearable Health Management Industry to Reach RMB 10 Billion in 5 Years

As more players enter the mobile health sector, a wide variety of wearable devices and mobile health apps have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. The year 2015 will witness an explosive surge in the market, and it is also a critical year for mobile health companies to carefully strategize. How can products accurately identify pain points and address essential market demands? How can effective marketing strategies be devised to enable rapid product launch and mass production? How can companies attract the interest of investors and gain consumer recognition? These are all questions worthy of careful consideration!

Bottleneck Challenges: How to Break Through the Contradictions in the Cross-Border Integration of Internet and Healthcare?

While the market prospects are promising, few enterprises have successfully broken through like Chunyu Yisheng (Spring Rain Doctor) and DXY (Dingxiang Yuan). The most significant challenge lies in the inherent contradictions between the characteristics of the internet and healthcare industries during their cross-sector integration. The internet is characterized by vast information volume, high-frequency usage, low average user income, low maintenance costs, standardization and ease of replication, a “winner-takes-all” dynamic after reaching critical mass, and zero marginal cost. In contrast, the healthcare industry features high average user income, high costs, localization that hinders a “winner-takes-all” outcome, asymmetry between payers and decision-makers, and barriers imposed by policies and regulations.

Product Positioning: Should It Be “Light” or “Heavy”?

The future landscape of internet healthcare will evolve into two models: the asset-light model and the asset-heavy model. The key to the asset-light model lies in its standardizability, whereas the asset-heavy model must address challenges such as long payback periods and unclear payment sources.

The product features of the “Light Consultation Mode” target non-acute conditions, lack of data, and low user stickiness. For patients, usage frequency is low, there is no dependency on doctors, and trust in the software is limited. For doctors, the absence of patient data results in low academic value, and interactions tend to be casual. In contrast, apps adopting the “Heavy Consultation Mode” provide in-depth services for patients with chronic diseases, enabling doctors to deliver comprehensive care during their fragmented spare time.

Business Model: Trying to do everything means everyone becomes your enemy!

Whether adopting an “asset-light” or “asset-heavy” approach, business models require improvement. The key for the “asset-light” model lies in its potential for standardization, while the “asset-heavy” model must address challenges related to long payback periods and identify viable payers. The advent of the smart healthcare era will fundamentally disrupt traditional healthcare business models. The critical question then becomes: which business model can generate scalable revenue and achieve profitability?

With the emergence of numerous disruptors in the mobile health sector—including internet giants such as BAT, Google, telecom carriers, Apple, and Samsung—while industry progress has been accelerated, the entry of these major players has also ushered in a new competitive landscape. Therefore, cross-industry collaboration represents the optimal business model for the future.

Marketing Strategy: Replicating the Legends of Xiaomi and Huawei in the Smartphone Sector

Whether it is smart hardware, medical apps, or big data platforms, product positioning is undoubtedly the first step toward success. In the future, competition will extend beyond products themselves to encompass business models and marketing strategies. Drawing examples from other sectors, companies like Xiaomi and Huawei have achieved remarkable success in the smartphone industry through effective marketing, turning their offerings into household-name star products.

For the emerging industries of mobile health and personal health management, proactive marketing strategies can reshape consumer perceptions. The mobile health sector also holds the potential to nurture a giant as successful as Xiaomi or Huawei.

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