Like food, clothing, housing and transportation, medical needs are also of great significance to people's survival. After years of development, the medical industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes. In addition to the increasing improvement of offline medical care, Internet medical care has also taken off rapidly with the rapid development of the Internet. Nowadays, Internet medical care has gradually become an important supplement to offline medical care, providing many benefits for people's medical needs.
The fast-growing Internet medical field has also ushered in the competition of players from all walks of life. Internet giants such as Alibaba, JD.com, and Baidu have already participated in it, and now they have become the backbone of the Internet medical field. The previous development has contributed its own strength. Take the difficulty in purchasing medicine not long ago as an example. Internet medical platforms such as JD Health and Ali Health actively responded to ensure the supply of medicines. However, although they are all Internet giants, Ali, JD.com, and Baidu have different advantages in the field of Internet medical care.
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Ali "traffic escort"
In fact, Ali has been in the medical and health field for a long time. Ali Health is the flagship platform of Alibaba Group's "Double H" strategy in the field of big health. After years of development, Ali Health has become a leading enterprise in the field of Internet medical care. According to the "White Paper on Online Medication Trends in 2022" released by Zhongkang Technology, 1 out of every 10 Internet users in China buys medicines at Ali Health Pharmacy. There are also many reasons why Ali Health can break through the siege among many players.
On the one hand, Ali-related traffic has laid the foundation for Ali’s healthy and rapid development. As we all know, Ali Health is backed by Alibaba Group, and Alibaba not only has a complete ecology, but also has abundant traffic. Whether it is Tmall, Taobao, Alipay, or other Ali-related software, it can drain Ali Health and boost its business development. In addition, relying on these traffic portals, the medical services provided by AliHealth can also quickly reach user groups and optimize user experience.
On the other hand, AliHealth continues to enrich product supply to meet consumer needs in an all-round way. Pharmaceutical e-commerce is the core business of AliHealth. In order to consolidate and expand its existing advantages, AliHealth is also continuously improving its supply capacity to meet the diverse needs of consumers, thereby enhancing consumer stickiness. Data shows that as of September 30, 2022, the Tmall Pharmaceutical platform has served more than 27,000 merchants, an increase of 2,000 from September 30, 2021; more than 48 million SKUs have been provided to users, a rapid increase of 8 million year-on-year indivual.
In addition, AliHealth is also continuously improving its digital capabilities and deploying in the field of digital medical care. With the deployment of various players in the field of Internet medical care, industry competition has become increasingly serious. Against this background, digital medical care has become an important focus for Alibaba Health to seek breakthroughs. For example, Ali Health has released a global digital marketing model to empower pharmaceutical companies through digital tools and help pharmaceutical companies break through the out-of-hospital market. In terms of patient management, Ali Health also relies on digital capabilities to create a digital patient management model, aiming to provide patients with inclusive and accessible disease management methods.
JD.com "paves the way for the supply chain"
In addition to Ali Health, JD Health is also at the forefront of the Internet medical field. JD Health, established in 2019, landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2020, becoming the third Internet medical company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after Ali Health and Ping An Good Doctor. Behind becoming a leader in the Internet medical industry, JD Health also has its own style of play.
Firstly, JD Health relies on the logistics network built by JD.com to ensure the timeliness of drug delivery. Unlike other products, the distribution conditions of some drugs are very strict, and JD.com has been deeply involved in the logistics field for many years and has created a complete distribution infrastructure network. Relying on JD.com's logistics network and distribution capabilities, JD Health can deliver products to consumers at a relatively fast speed. According to the data, as of June 30, 2022, JD Health has used 20 drug warehouses and more than 450 non-drug warehouses of JD Logistics nationwide, and the "self-operated cold chain" capability of JD Pharmacy has covered over 240 nationwide City.
Second, JD Health actively cooperates with medical and health companies or brands to establish and continuously optimize the supply chain system. In fact, JD Health has been actively cooperating with well-known pharmaceutical companies at home and abroad, and continues to deepen cooperation, while maintaining a stable supply chain, while improving its own supply chain capabilities. It is understood that JD Health has reached direct cooperation with 92% of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies in the world and 97% of the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in China.
Thirdly, JD Health continues to improve its professional service capabilities to meet the different medical and health needs of users. In the face of growing medical needs, JD Health is also continuing to improve its professional capabilities in order to provide users with better medical and health services. For example, in terms of single-disease management, JD Health has launched the "JD Pharmacy Single-disease Patient Care Center", which provides more accurate and comprehensive one-stop medical and health services for more patients through specialized operations and a comprehensive patient care system. service. In terms of consultation services, JD Health has launched three online consultation services: "Expert Online", "Miaowen Jingyi", and "Emergency at Night" to solve users' medical consultation needs in different scenarios.
Baidu "AI support"
Unlike Ali Health and JD Health, Baidu's development in the medical field has been a bit bumpy. Looking back to the past, we can see that the Baidu Mobile Medical Division was established in January 2015, but two years later, the Baidu Mobile Healthcare Division was abolished as a whole. Until March 2020, Baidu announced the establishment of Baidu Health. Despite the twists and turns, Baidu Health has now achieved good results. It is reported that Baidu Health has provided health consultation services to more than 200 million people.
On the one hand, Baidu Health has vigorously deployed content ecology to meet users' daily health knowledge needs. With the improvement of people's health awareness, people also have a higher demand for medical information such as health knowledge and medical medication. When people encounter problems or have information they want to know, they often search for answers. Therefore, Baidu's The search portal has natural advantages in health consultation and understanding of medical content.
Baidu Health's content ecology can not only give full play to its original advantages, but also meet the needs of users for popularizing health knowledge. Statistics show that Baidu Health has accumulated 500 million+ authoritative content, cooperated with more than 2,000 authoritative experts, over 200 industry authoritative organizations, and conducted more than 3,000 health live broadcasts every month. Today, Baidu Health's users retrieve medical and health information on an average of 200 million times a day.
On the other hand, relying on years of technical background, Baidu Health has created a precise doctor-patient matching engine to provide assistance for precise matching and connection between users and medical services. Relying on Baidu's technology accumulation in AI, big data and other fields, Baidu Health has created a precise doctor-patient matching engine, which can help patients with special diseases and public hospital specialists to achieve precise connection and matching on the Internet, avoid detours for patients, and avoid delays in treatment .
Relevant data show that as of now, Baidu Health has directly connected to more than 20 national medical regional centers, directly cooperated with more than 80 national key specialties and more than 70 provincial key specialties, and has received 500,000 visits in the past year More than 50,000 patients with specific diseases have been provided with precise services, and more than 50,000 precise patients have been provided with appointment services.
Internet medical "difficult road"
Facing the Internet medical field with huge potential, Internet giants have entered the market one after another, and relying on their advantages in technology, traffic, and supply chain, the Internet giants that have entered the market with their own "halo" have already killed in the Internet field. It has made a way out and has become a force that cannot be ignored in the field of Internet medical care. But even so, Internet giants entering the Internet medical field still face considerable challenges.
First, there are many entrants, and Internet giants entering the medical field not only have to compete with each other, but also face competition from other players such as Lilac Garden. Before the Internet giants entered the Internet medical field, there were a group of senior players active in the Internet medical field, such as WeDoctor, Dingxiangyuan, Chunyu Doctor, etc., and after a long period of development, these veteran players have also formed their own characteristics. The strength should not be underestimated. In the face of many competitors, the pressure that the Internet giants will face can be imagined.
Second, the homogeneity of Internet medical platforms is serious, and it is difficult to create differentiated advantages. In order to cope with competition, many Internet medical companies are expanding their business scope, but this also makes their businesses gradually converge. For example, although the business models of JD Health and Ali Health are different, the business content is quite similar, mainly including online retail pharmacies, Internet medical care, health services and smart medical services. For the giants entering the Internet medical field, it is imminent to establish a differentiated advantage.
Third, the B-end market of Internet medical care has huge potential, but it is not easy for Internet giants to tap the B-end market. Undoubtedly, the B-end market of the Internet medical industry has huge development potential. Therefore, many Internet medical companies have begun to explore the B-end market. However, most of the Internet giants started from the C-end market, and their approach to developing the C-end market may not necessarily be applicable to the B-end market. Therefore, even Internet giants with huge traffic and multiple advantages still need time to explore the B-end market.
Undoubtedly, Internet medical care has become an outlet, and Internet giants with their own advantages in traffic, logistics, technology, and capital have also gained a foothold in the field of Internet medical care. Nowadays, many Internet medical companies have begun to explore digital intelligence, but it is still difficult to get rid of the background of "selling medicine" in the short term. All in all, whether it is Ali Health, JD Health, or Baidu Health, the road ahead is still long.