Douyin Expands Healthcare Certification to Include Private Tier-3A Hospitals

Douyin Strikes Again with Major Move in the Health Sector.

On the evening of September 18, Douyin Health’s official WeChat account released a notice on adjustments to the verification rules for Douyin Medical certified accounts (including institutions).Most notably, Douyin has lifted restrictions on institutional verification for private Grade A tertiary hospitals and individual verification for attending physicians and above.

(Screenshot from: Douyin Health Official Account)

Prior to this, Douyin’s rules only supported certification for physicians and hospital departments at public institutions, while piloting certification for select JCI-accredited (Joint Commission International) facilities and private Grade 3A medical institutions.

“As soon as the news broke, we began organizing our team to engage in benchmarking studies to respond to and adapt to the platform’s new changes,” the founder of an unnamed digital pharmaceutical content company told VCBeat.This comprehensive opening of accreditation for private Grade 3A hospitals marks another significant step by Douyin Health into the broader healthcare sector.

Multiple industry insiders close to leading short-video platforms have stated that Douyin and Kuaishou, another industry leader, have chosen different paths in the medical and health sector.

From the perspective of this evolutionary path, Douyin Health is gradually moving into its fourth stage. Meanwhile, Douyin continues to strengthen its efforts in the pharmaceutical e-commerce sector.This month, Douyin opened its local lifestyle services to pharmacies., meaning that users can search for registered pharmacies on Douyin’s “Local” channel, view their geographic locations and user reviews, and purchase discount coupons. This signifies that Douyin will begin exploring the pharmaceutical O2O business.

Through multiple rounds of rule adjustments and strategic business deployments since the beginning of this year, Douyin appears to have carved out a healthcare path tailored to its own strengths.

In Douyin Health’s latest adjustments to its certification rules, the opening of official certification for private Grade 3A hospitals has drawn significant attention from the industry.

“Previously, the Douyin platform was predominantly populated by public hospitals and their physicians. However, in reality,”Whether individual physician influencers or private hospitals, their motivation to join short-video platforms is significantly stronger than that of public hospitals."Qiao Zeping, founder of Zhengdu Health, told VCBeat."

This is because private hospitals face greater pressure than public hospitals in promoting patient acquisition, and therefore have a stronger willingness to establish a presence on massive traffic platforms such as Douyin.

How High Are Customer Acquisition Costs for Private Hospitals? Taking the listed company Ruili Medical Aesthetics as an example, its sales and distribution expenses in the first half of 2023 amounted to approximately RMB 22.8 million, accounting for 23.36% of its H1 revenue of RMB 97.58 million. In response, Ruili Medical Aesthetics disclosed in its financial report that it would develop new customer acquisition channels by establishing a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) agency. Through specialized operations including influencer incubation, content production, and user management, the company aims to promote a new marketing model centered on live-streaming e-commerce, thereby reducing long-term customer acquisition costs.

Therefore, fully opening up official certification for private Grade A tertiary hospitals will not only bring more traffic opportunities to private medical institutions but also provide greater support for the content ecosystem of Douyin Health.

Ding Zhaoliang, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Matrix, told VCBeat that if doctors’ or medical institutions’ Douyin accounts are effectively operated and deliver positive value, the massive exposure from short videos will attract a large number of patients seeking consultations and appointments.Douyin is highly suitable for young associate chief physicians and attending physicians to acquire clinical resources., based on our observations, this is indeed highly effective.”

But why start with Grade 3A hospitals instead of integrating the entire private healthcare sector into the ecosystem all at once?

Many industry experts believe that this is closely related to the “wild growth” of the medical science popularization industry in previous years: During the early stages of development of medical science popularization, some institutions, in their rush to commercialize, generated traffic by publishing eye-catching and highly misleading content. This ultimately led to frequent irregularities within the industry, extremely low user trust, and even cases where audiences with poor discernment skills delayed treatment due to blindly trusting such content.

For instance, on many platforms, highly misleading content is ubiquitous, such as “Add one ingredient to red dates to drive away diabetes,” “Combine black beans with one herbal remedy to treat early-stage diabetes—ancient wisdom prevails,” and “Add one ingredient to plain boiled water to resolve major health issues for both men and women.” The ultimate consequence is that users have become wary of medical science popularization, resulting in losses for platforms, institutions, and users alike.

It is precisely for these reasons that Douyin Health has initially piloted its program with private Grade 3A hospitals. Once this model is proven successful, it is highly likely that entry requirements will be progressively relaxed to onboard a broader range of private medical institutions.

To regulate the industry ecosystem, in addition to exercising prudence in onboarding criteria,On April 10 this year, Douyin Health further issued the rule “Medical and Health Certified Accounts Are Not Permitted to Be Operated by MCNs on a Proxy Basis,” delivering a significant shock to MCN agencies in the medical science popularization industry.

It is worth noting that in recent years, the vast majority of influencer doctors on Douyin have been backed by multi-channel network (MCN) agencies. According to previous statistics from Zhen Suo Jie, there were over 1,000 companies operating physicians’ new media platforms in the market in 2020.

On April 12, Douyin subsequently issued another announcement titled “Adjustments to Private Messaging and Fan Group Interaction Features for Healthcare-Verified Accounts (Including Institutions),” stating that it would phase out functionalities such as sending messages, video calls, voice calls, and creating new groups within private messaging and fan group scenarios for healthcare-verified accounts in batches.

(Timeline of Douyin Health’s Rule Adjustments This Year, Chart by VCBeat)

A series of measures are intended to address the issues of external patient referral diversion and secondary product promotion on the platform.According to observations from multiple industry insiders, since the aforementioned rules were released, a large number of businesses primarily focused on traditional appointment registration and patient referrals have been gradually disappearing from the Douyin platform.

“There were indeed many irregularities in the past, with some internet-famous doctors earning hundreds of thousands of yuan per month through commissions from live-streaming e-commerce and viewer tips.” An industry insider who requested anonymity stated that after the National Health Commission issued the document “Key Points for Correcting Unhealthy Practices in Pharmaceutical Procurement and Sales and Medical Services in 2022” last year, the practice of medical institution staff leveraging their professional positions and identities to promote products was halted, leaving numerous influencer doctors unable to sustain such activities.

It is worth noting that,Douyin Has Also Made Adjustments to Its Personally Verified Accounts, i.e., applicants holding positions within the health system must not only hold social positions in organizations such as the Chinese Medical Association but also concurrently hold an in-service position of attending physician or above at a public tertiary hospital.In the past, some physicians would secure positions in publicly administered health information systems through various means to successfully obtain certified credentials, despite actually practicing in private medical institutions.“This adjustment to the rule has allowed the loophole to be closed,” said the aforementioned industry insider, who requested anonymity.

(Image source: Screenshot from the official Douyin Health WeChat account)

It is not difficult to find that,Douyin is making steady inroads into the healthcare sector, accelerating governance of the industry ecosystem while continuously expanding the range of medical participants.: From public hospitals to private Grade-A tertiary hospitals, it continues to enrich the diversity of its healthcare ecosystem and pave the way for future commercialization.

Short-video platforms, with their inherent content advantages, have long served as key carriers for science popularization. Both Douyin and Kuaishou have prioritized health-related science communication as a strategic focus.

Data indicates that Douyin has achieved notable success in popularizing health science. According to the “2023 White Paper on New Paradigms for Healthy Living on Douyin” released by Ocean Engine Arithmetic, over 100 million short videos related to healthcare and medicine were created on Douyin from January to June 2023, accumulating nearly 500 billion views. In June alone, health- and medical-related content received more than 100 million likes from interested users.

However, based on the experiences of pioneers in internet healthcare,Health Science Popularization: Impressive Traffic, Yet Challenging Monetization: Given the serious nature of healthcare and the public-welfare orientation of health science popularization, product placement advertising for pharmaceuticals and medical devices in short videos has been subject to strict regulatory oversight. Therefore, platforms must identify appropriate pathways to achieve compliant commercialization.

One approach is to emulate Baidu Health by building a dual-ecosystem strategy of “content + services.”, one end attracts health-conscious audiences through short-video content, converting this traffic into users of online consultation or advisory services; the other end establishes internet hospitals for offline public hospitals, building a bridge for communication and connection with precisely targeted users. The advantage of this model lies in strong user stickiness and high trust, but the challenge is the high demand for premium content, requiring Douyin to continuously support high-quality healthcare accounts.

Another approach is similar to JD Health, which involves building a standalone internet healthcare platform., directing users from the Douyin app to an independent platform, a strategy consistent with Douyin’s earlier launch of the Xiaohe Health app. The advantage of this approach lies in leveraging Douyin’s massive traffic to rapidly scale services such as online consultations; however, it poses significant challenges for sustained operations, particularly in building out physician resources and medical device supply chains.

Judging from Douyin’s expansion direction, its strategic layout extends far beyond this.

Currently, in addition to health science popularization, the Douyin platform has launched a standalone mini-program for Xiaohe Health, enabling users to conduct online consultations and locate hospitals directly within the app. Coupled with the integration of local life services for pharmacies, Douyin’s healthcare business has become highly diversified.

(Screenshot of the Xiaohe Health Mini Program page, sourced from: Douyin platform)

In short, Douyin is not only offering traditional health education and online consultations but also advancing into pharmaceutical e-commerce and assisting medical institutions in establishing internet hospitals.

How are Douyin’s other business segments performing at present?

Open the Xiaohe Health mini-program. On the “Find a Doctor” interface, it shows that the platform has currently gathered numerous physicians from top-tier (Grade 3A) hospitals, including Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing Anzhen Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, Peking University First Hospital, and Fuwai Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.By the time VCBeat observed the Xiaohe Health app in 2021, it had already undergone substantial expansion of its physician resources.

In terms of services, after navigating to a specific physician’s profile, the Xiaohe Health mini-program provides users with features such as “Appointment Registration,” “Online Consultation,” and “Viewing Clinic Schedule.” From a data perspective,Many doctors have already conducted hundreds of online consultations.Although Douyin still lags significantly behind platforms such as Haodf Online and Chunyu Yisheng, where doctors often handle thousands of patient consultations, its efforts in this area remain evident after more than two years of market entry.

Finally,Douyin is still in its early stages in pharmaceutical e-commerce and in helping medical institutions establish internet hospitals.For instance, in the realm of pharmaceutical e-commerce, the Xiaohe Health APP previously featured a dedicated “Online Pharmacy” section on its homepage. However, this feature is absent in the current version of the Xiaohe Health mini-program. Instead, numerous pharmacy chains, such as Laobaixing Pharmacy, Yifeng Pharmacy, Heping Pharmacy, and Shuyu Civilian Pharmacy, have established their presence by launching official accounts on Douyin.

(Screenshot from the official Douyin account of a chain pharmacy; source: Douyin platform)

According to an industry insider,Most chain pharmacies join Douyin to boost brand awareness and capture consumer mindshare through exposure to millions or even tens of millions of viewers.For Douyin, once it begins to roll out its pharmaceutical O2O business on a large scale, these chain pharmacies can quickly convert their connections with the platform. “If implemented,Douyin has pursued a business model similar to that of Meituan Medicine. Since it lacks the inherent advantages in e-commerce supply chains enjoyed by Alibaba Health and JD Health, converting its traffic into pharmaceutical O2O services represents a more viable path.”

And in terms of helping medical institutions establish internet hospitals,The “Find Hospitals” feature has been launched on the Xiaohe Health mini-program, although the number of covered hospitals remains very limited at present.Taking Chongqing as an example, Xiaohe Health currently only allows users to query information for 45 hospitals.

In summary, through continuous strategic deployment and iterative experimentation, Douyin has made new progress in health science popularization and online consultations, and has made initial forays into pharmaceutical e-commerce (particularly pharmaceutical O2O) and assisting medical institutions in establishing internet hospitals.

In an interview with VCBeat, multiple industry experts expressed positive views on Douyin’s new regulations, as well as the policy “Medical and Health Certified Accounts Will Not Be Supported for Operation by MCNs,” released in April this year.

First, despite the current abundance of health science popularization content, data provided by platforms indicate that the supply of such content still fails to meet demand.

Second, both the state and platforms have respectively introduced policies and issued regulations to guide the standardized development of the industry, establishing a relatively standardized ecosystem for the production of high-quality content, thereby allowing higher-quality and more authoritative health science popularization content to stand out.

Third, against the backdrop of a continuously improving industry ecosystem,Digital Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry Is Poised for a Golden Growth Period.According to the “2022 Research Report on Digital Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry” released by VCBeat, the market size of digital marketing in China’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to further grow in 2025 and 2030, reaching RMB 111 billion and RMB 356.8 billion, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.9%.

(Trends in the Market Size of China's Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing Industry (2016–2030),

(Data source: Frost & Sullivan, compiled by VCBeat)

“Since 2022, there has been a significant shift in the pharmaceutical industry’s attitude toward digital content marketing. Pharmaceutical companies that had previously repeatedly declined or even explicitly rejected our proposals proactively reached out to us last year to express interest in collaboration,” said Qiao Zeping, Founder of Zhengdu Health.

In this process, omni-channel marketing is gaining increasing importance within the industry.

How to Understand Omnichannel Marketing?

From the perspective of Qiao Zeping, founder of Zhengdu Health, when viewed from the standpoint of influencer typology, platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou possess varying degrees of localization characteristics. Therefore, pharmacists at local pharmacies can be cultivated as influencers to drive traffic to these pharmacies. From the platform’s perspective,The incubation of future influencers and the distribution of content will inevitably trend toward an all-network, all-platform approach;Furthermore, the commercialization pathway may also change.Shift from "in-platform product seeding with off-platform conversion" to "in-platform product seeding with in-platform conversion"。

For instance, Douyin is piloting live-streamed pharmaceutical sales. Since April 2022, Douyin E-commerce has gradually opened up the sale of health supplements and certain medical devices, and launched an OTC (over-the-counter) drug category last December, inviting specific brands to join the platform.

“Omni-channel marketing will be a major trend. First, there are numerous platforms, each vying for users’ time; second, according to the ‘Six Exposures Theory’ in marketing...”’and the content tag-based recommendation mechanisms of short-video platforms, reaching a customer and driving them to make a purchase requires intensive contact with the customer six times within a short period. Therefore, omnichannel marketing is critically important,Users should not only encounter this doctor on Douyin but also see them on platforms such as Dianping, WeChat Channels, and Haodf Online, accompanied by positive reviews. This creates a complete trust loop in the minds of users.“Ding Zhaoliang, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Matrix, stated.”

Therefore, as platforms represented by Douyin continue to adjust their strategies, how to leverage the traffic from these platforms to drive business growth has become a critical issue for medical institutions, including hospitals and pharmacies, to carefully consider.

For platform operators such as Douyin, it is essential to invest more time in gaining a better and deeper understanding of the medical and healthcare sector, so as to continue delving further into this field and achieve greater success.

How many more compelling stories will the industry tell in the future? Only time will tell.