Medical services app Ping An Good Doctor raises US$500m

As the Chinese healthcare market continues to boom, Ping An Good Doctor, a medical service mobile app, backed by Ping An Insurance (Group), announced on Thursday a Series A funding round of a total of US$500 million.

Set up in April last year, the app has hit a reported valuation of US$3 billion, with 77 million registered users and more than 50,000 doctors, Xinhua reported.

That deal is the single largest investment in China’s online medical service platforms, as China’s medical treatment and healthcare market is likely to reach 10 trillion yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period by 2020, according to Chinese media.

Ping An Good Doctor did not say who led its funding round but said the investors include large central enterprises, internet companies and overseas investment funds.

This app provides free diagnosis, treatment and online appointment booking, and allows users to consult doctors through text, pictures, and video. It also contains healthcare-related articles, a microblog-style discussion forum for healthcare topics, and an online store that sells drugs, healthcare products, cosmetics, and even digital and physical gift cards for medical services such as health exams and gene testing.

It has 77 million users registered on its app and receives consultation requests from up to 250,000 users daily. The app has recruited 1,000 full-time medical professionals and partnerships with 50,000 doctors from public and private hospitals as of last month.

Over the past two years, more than 100 health-related “mobile medical” smartphone apps have been launched, which offer services from free or fee-based medical consultations and doctor appointments to personal health management and health tips.

Domestic Internet giants and various investors are racing to raise funds to compete for the dominant position in China’s digital healthcare market.

Tencent-backed doctor appointment website Guahao.com, reportedly with links to 100,000 Chinese doctors and 37 million users, raised nearly US$400 million in September last year, led by Hillhouse Capital, Goldman Sachs and Tencent Holdings.

Ali Health, Alibaba’s healthcare subsidiary, launched a mobile application in Beijing late last year to connect doctors from grassroots medical institutions and nearby residents. Patients can simply pick up their phones to interact with a doctor.

Statistics show that from 2009 to 2014, government spending on health amounted to 4 trillion yuan, 1.2 trillion yuan of which came from the central government.