Haodf Online "sells itself" to ANT GROUP, the "100 billion unicorn" reborn?

ANT GROUP has finally become the "new owner" of Haodf. Previously, Haodf was a sought-after target in the eyes of capital, with Tencent, Lei Jun, and others as its investors, and its valuation exceeding 10 billion yuan. However, the delay in going public has caused previous "patrons" to lose patience. Now, with Haodf falling into the arms of ANT GROUP, this provides an exit channel for capital. For ANT GROUP, which is vigorously developing its medical and health business, leveraging Haodf's existing resources can further explore business models in the medical and health field.

ANT GROUP becomes the new "owner" of Haodf.

On September 13th, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed that there was a business change in the main entity of Haodf, Interactive Peak Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Haodf's founder Wang Hang, Lei Jun, and other shareholders exited, and ANT Technology Group's wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai Yunchang Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Shanghai Yunchang"), became a shareholder, holding 100% of the shares.

It is reported that Haodf was established in 2006 and is a leading platform for online medical consultation on the Internet. It has attracted investments from well-known figures such as Lei Jun and Tencent, with a peak valuation of nearly 10 billion yuan. However, due to its single business model and the commercial transformation falling short of expectations, the company has always lacked the ability to generate profits and has gradually declined.

The difficulty in self-generation of profits, coupled with the persistent choice not to go public, has gradually exhausted the patience of Haodf's investors. Therefore, they had to choose to sell to ANT GROUP.

However, the valuable resources accumulated by Haodf over its 18 years of establishment, including renowned doctors, users, databases, etc., are still valuable, which is one of the reasons why it is frequently rumored to be acquired by major companies. For ANT GROUP, the Internet medical business on the Alipay platform can complement Haodf's resources.

Haodf "sells itself"

ANT GROUP

The rumors of Haodf being acquired by major companies in the past ultimately led to it falling into the arms of ANT GROUP.

In fact, there were reports as early as August 2023 that major Internet companies were interested in acquiring Haodf and had made offers. In April of this year, there were rumors that Ali Health was in talks with Haodf for acquisition, and substantial progress had been made on some key issues, but both sides denied it at the time.

A month ago, rumors about ANT GROUP planning to acquire Haodf were rampant. At that time, Haodf did not refute the rumors, only responding briefly that the company had no comment on the news, and to refer to official announcements for confirmation. ANT GROUP did not respond to this.

Now, it appears that Haodf has ultimately "fallen into" ANT GROUP.

Public information shows that the original shareholders of Interactive Peak Technology, the parent company of Haodf, were five individuals, including the company's founder Wang Hang holding 85.94% of the shares, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun holding 0.97%, as well as Hu Shaoyu, Luo Dan, and Lu Yongyan. Now, Shanghai Yunchang has taken over, holding 100% of the shares. Public information shows that it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ANT GROUP.

At the same time, the legal representative of Interactive Peak Technology has changed to Zhang Junjie, Vice President of Alipay and General Manager of the Digital Medical and Health Business Unit In addition, 7 controlled enterprises of Interactive Peak Technology, including Haodafu Medical Technology (Hainan) Co., Ltd., Haodafu Online (Yinchuan) Technology Co., Ltd., Haodafu Internet of Things Hospital (Hainan) Co., Ltd., are currently in a deregistered status. Multiple "Haodafu" related trademarks have been transferred, with the transferee being Beijing New Medical Strong Country Technology Co., Ltd.

The legal representative of Beijing New Medical Strong Country Technology Co., Ltd. has also been changed to Zhang Junjie, with original shareholders Yang Lifeng, Wang Hang, etc. exiting, and currently 100% held by Shanghai Yunshuang.

As one of the pioneers of Internet medical services, Haodafu Online has been exploring for 18 years. Since 2008, Haodafu Online has started to build a doctor's workstation, providing online doctor-patient communication tools. In 2016, it pioneered the Yinchuan Smart Internet Hospital, promoting the trial of Internet hospitals.

According to the official website, Haodafu Online has currently included 10,526 hospitals nationwide, 933,000 doctors, providing services such as text and image consultation, telephone consultation, remote video consultation, precise outpatient appointment, post-diagnosis disease management, etc.

According to Haodafu Online's official account, in 2023, more than 270,000 doctors nationwide provided a total of 49.9 million text and image consultation services, 810,000 telephone consultation services on the Haodafu Online platform. After patients' visits, 340,000 medical evaluations were published through the Haodafu Online platform.

A Billion-dollar Unicorn

Behind the Decline

Haodafu Online also had its glorious moments.

Public information shows that Haodafu Online was established in 2006, at a time when the domestic Internet medical industry was in its infancy.

In its second year of establishment, Lei Jun, as an angel investor, joined hands with Ceyuan Ventures to invest 3 million RMB in Haodafu Online. In 2008, 2011, 2015, and 2017, Haodafu Online received four rounds of financing from institutions including DCM China, ZhenFund, etc. Among them, the D-round financing in 2017 reached as high as 200 million USD, led by Tencent, with multiple fund companies participating. At the same time, Haodafu Online's valuation reached 1.3-1.4 billion USD, about 10 billion RMB, entering the unicorn ranks.

However, Haodafu Online has not disclosed its financing situation publicly since then.

It is worth noting that despite being established for many years, Haodafu Online has never chosen to go public. Founder Wang Hang stated that the industry is just beginning, and it is not yet time to go public. They are unwilling to go public with unfinished products and high valuations. Haodafu Online must achieve self-sufficiency before considering going public.

However, the delay in going public has gradually made previously optimistic investors lose patience.

Haodafu Online founder Wang Hang once stated in an interview with Economic Observer that since the first half of 2022, he has frequently met with Haodafu's shareholders, being asked by the shareholders: When can they exit and get the money?

Furthermore, Haodafu Online has always lacked the ability to generate revenue.

It is reported that Haodafu Online's "Three No's" have been widely circulated in the industry, namely not earning drug profits, not building offline hospitals, not engaging in medical advertising business, solely relying on medical service fees However, most of the current Internet medical industry relies on "selling drugs" to support revenue. The persistence of Haodf.com seems too "idealistic". Later entrants such as Alibaba Health, Ping An Good Doctor, JD Health, etc., are rapidly expanding their presence by "selling drugs". Taking Alibaba Health as an example, in the 2024 fiscal year, the company's self-operated health product sales revenue reached 23.739 billion yuan, accounting for 87.84% of total revenue; pharmaceutical e-commerce platform business revenue reached 2.329 billion yuan, accounting for 8.62% of total revenue; medical health and digital service business revenue reached 0.958 billion yuan, only accounting for 3.54% of total revenue.

Haodf.com, which is "stubbornly" focused on medical services, is gradually falling behind as a result. Even in the subsequent development, Haodf.com tried advertising, membership, and other business models, but the commercialization of the company has always fallen short of expectations, struggling to make a profit.

In the winter of 2022, Haodf.com announced layoffs and transformation. In an internal open letter, Wang Hang stated that Haodf.com is about to undergo strategic and organizational adjustments, specifically transitioning from the entrepreneurial stage of focusing on product research to market development. The hope is to strengthen the business's risk resistance, break free from reliance on financing, and become a self-sustaining enterprise.

By the time 2024 arrives, Haodf.com still possesses core resources such as famous doctors, users, databases, etc., and being embraced by Ant Group may also be a good choice for Haodf.com.

Ant Group's

Digital Healthcare Landscape

It is reported that as early as 2014, Alipay under Ant Group entered the digital healthcare field.

It can be said that Alipay's healthcare business has always been linked to medical insurance. In 2016, Alipay cooperated with the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau to launch cardless payment for medical insurance. In 2018, Alipay participated in the formulation of medical insurance electronic voucher standards, and subsequently, regions such as Shandong and Guangxi successively launched Alipay medical insurance inquiries. In 2019, Alipay assisted the National Medical Insurance Administration in launching the country's first medical insurance electronic voucher. By 2023, Alipay, together with Ele.me and Meituan, first provided online medical insurance drug purchase services in Shanghai...

In April of this year, data from the Medical Insurance Bureau shows that the number of national medical insurance code users has exceeded 1.12 billion, with over 800,000 designated medical institutions connected, and over 6.1 billion transactions settled. Among them, the number of users activated and used through Alipay has exceeded 610 million, making it the largest third-party activation and medical insurance payment channel officially recognized by the National Medical Insurance Administration.

Public information shows that in over 300 cities nationwide, over 3,600 hospitals provide one-stop digital healthcare services on Alipay. The number of users who have activated the medical insurance code through Alipay is close to 600 million, with over 200 million monthly active users, and the number of medical service uses per day reaching 13 million.

Therefore, Alipay has a strong advantage in terms of traffic and platform.

In terms of medical services, in addition to routine online consultations and health education, in June 2023, the Hangzhou Medical Insurance Bureau, in collaboration with Alipay, launched the country's first AI medical insurance assistant "Yibao Xiaozhi" in Hangzhou. In November of the same year, the Zhejiang Health Commission, in collaboration with Alipay, launched the country's first digital health person "Anzhen'er" On September 5th, Alipay also launched the "AI Health Butler" at the Waigaoqiao Summit. This service covers multiple medical service processes such as finding doctors, interpreting reports, accompanying consultations, and consulting medical insurance, aiming to empower the medical industry with artificial intelligence to simplify and optimize users' medical experiences.

From an industry perspective, according to Head Leopard Research Institute, from 2019 to 2023, the market size of the Internet medical health industry will increase from 26.079 billion yuan to 124.573 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 47.84% during this period. It is expected that from 2024 to 2028, the market size of the Internet medical health industry will increase from 161.866 billion yuan to 421.976 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 27.07%. The Internet medical health industry still has significant room for development.

Currently, Alipay has a "stronger platform attribute," while Haodf.com has tens of thousands of active prestigious doctors. This acquisition allows Haodf.com to alleviate its own insufficient self-sufficiency and the challenges of commercial transformation. Ant Group can leverage the resource advantages of Haodf.com to accelerate the construction of the online medical service system and form a more diversified commercial path