Health care is an area of great concern in all countries. With the development of the Internet, digital elements are also integrated into the health care sector. From this perspective, we have to talk about China. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, is very active in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic. It has developed a tool that allows diagnosis in just twenty seconds.
In fact, not only for the fight against the Covid-19, the Chinese tech giant has been engaged in the Chinese health care market in many aspects, changing the Chinese health care market as it has done for Chinese payment and shopping behaviors.
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Chinese health care market overview
According to a report published by McKinsey & Co, the second-largest economy’s healthcare market is tipped to grow at an unprecedented CAGR of around 12% which will surge to $1 trillion by 2020, while in 2011 the sector was still valued at $357 billion.
Moreover, according to the National Health Commission, in 2017, China’s online healthcare market was up to 32.5 billion yuan ($4.6 billion), 45.87 percent higher than that of the previous year. This increase was contributed mainly by:
- Improvement in living standards in China;
- Governmental supporting plans;
- The growing consciousness about health care and personal well-being;
- The introduction of nutrition supplements;
- The fast development of Chinese e-commerce;
- The high penetration rate of smartphones.
Alibaba supports SMEs in China to Survive Coronavirus Impact
Alibaba is the No.1 in Chinese e-commerce. However, the company isn’t restricted to e-commerce, and with its subsidiary Ant Financial, Alibaba is at the forefront of the battle against the Covid-19 epidemic, which appeared in China in early 2020.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Alibaba has already launched a total of 20 SME assistance projects, also increasing donations to regions affected by the coronavirus. The tech behemoth unveiled 20 measures leveraging its widespread ecosystem and providing support across six areas, as follows:
- No More Platform Fees (For example Tmall);
- Low Interest & Interest-Free Lending concerning Ant Financial and Huabei;
- Subsidized Delivery (142 m USD for supporting supply chain);
- Temporary Work Aid in Alibaba’s new retail supermarket;
- Free Digital Tools for businesses;
- Free Remote Work assistance.
All those measures by Alibaba show Alibaba’s social responsibility. This is what Daniel Zhang has repeatedly emphasized:
Our company devoted all efforts to prevent the epidemic and used the business and technical power of Ali’s digital economy to participate in material assistance and livelihood security in the affected areas.
A diagnosis in just 20 seconds by Ali
The new coronavirus detection tool was developed by Damo Academy of Alibaba Research Institute. Twenty seconds is all it takes to know if the person is infected or not. It is much faster than a doctor who needs 5-15 minutes to do the same thing.
As reported, the researchers apparently trained the AI model using sample data from more than 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. As a result, the artificial intelligence-driven system that is said to be able to identify differences in CT scans between patients infected with the new virus and patients with common viral pneumonia, with an accuracy of 96%.
In the battle against the Covid-19 epidemic, Alibaba is not lacking in inspiration. Alibaba Cloud, Alipay and DingTalk jointly developed a smart epidemic prevention program in residential neighborhoods. Launched by Alibaba Group in 2015, Dingtalk is an app that became popular after the emergence of the Covid-19 epidemic.
This app allows users to communicate and organize conferences remotely. With the problems of schooling following the quarantine measures, the DingTalk app launched “Online Classroom”, a free program that offers students ways to interact with teachers. According to statistics, more than 600,000 teachers use this application.
In addition, Alipay and DingTalk are used to record residents’ arrivals and departures online and inform the epidemic situation. DingTalk also provides SMEs a free working platform to realize remote work at home.
Alipay: mobile payment method that avoids contamination during the Covid-19
In terms of biometrics, Ant Financial offered multimodal facial recognition technology, fusioning the world’s first technological advantage. This technology is successfully applied in the facial recognition payment of Alipay.
Alipay‘s smart self-service shops support face-scanning payment, providing users with a way to make contactless purchases, a safer and more secure method of payment. Users can open the shop door via the linked Alipay account, freely choose the product, and pay automatically.
China’s Mental Health Counseling Is Going Digital
In recent years, with the living pressure going up and the fast economic development and the acceleration of the aging process of the population, mental health disorders have become a big problem in China. However, the great demand and inadequate access to mental health services are major challenges for mental health care.
It is just in this situation, the online mental counseling is getting more and more popular. Moreover, thanks to the Internet, people with mental problems can join hands and help each other.
Advises for foreign health care businesses planning to enter the Chinese market
The Internet has reshaped the whole world including China, of which every sector now in China is linked closely with the Internet. If companies want to enter the market, they must know two essential points, that is branding is everything in China and Chinese Internet ecosystem is very different from the Western one.
From the perspective of health care field, the reputation and brand credibility are key factors to success. Especially for the Chinese market where consumers are frightened by quality and fake products scandals.
Creation of a Mandarin website to promote your credibility
The creation of your website can build you a reliable image among the Chinese users. You can utilize the website to educate audiences, share new products launches, etc., in a word, your website is your portal between you and your targets.
Not only having a Chinese website is enough, your website should be hosted in China or nearby to provide users a fluid and comfortable user experience. Moreover, the content and the web design should cater to Chinese taste and habits, which means a simple translation of your original website can work well in China. It is not possible!
Community and social media management can boost your brand awareness
Chinese people are highly independent of social media. They rely on the social reviews and KOLs recommendations to choose their products. It is thus very important to do the social media marketing campaign and manage well your brands image among users.
WeChat, with more than 1.2 billion users, is the largest social media in China. It is your first and a must choice for your strategies. Weibo is the second largest one in China, but it has an advantage: an open social network. Therefore, Weibo is very suitable for mass marketing to gain a lot of traffic in a short time.
If you are interested in doing business in China, and you want to learn more about this market, feel free to contact us, we can bring you much more information and practical methods.
GMA, an expert in Chinese digital marketing with more than 8 years of experience, we are the leading agency in Chinese market and your ideal parterner.
Read more about the healthcare & wellness market in China:
- Healthy Food : 3 steps to hit Chinese market
- Alibaba paid $2 Billion in cash to acquire NetEase Inc
- Does aromatherapy have a market in China?
