Worried Chinese turn to online doctor consultations amid coronavirus outbreak

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

26/02/2020 07:49

By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh
    BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Spooked by a sneeze or
a cough, Chinese consumers are turning to online consultations
in droves for advice about possible coronavirus symptoms - a
boon for a fledgling industry that has struggled to win over
customers. 
    Due to the epidemic, hundreds of millions of Chinese are 
stuck at home due to quarantine restrictions imposed by
authorities or companies. Even if not under quarantine, many are
too worried to venture for long outside or to visit a hospital
for other ailments as they fear they might catch the highly
contagious virus.
    The surge of inquiries has also been driven by healthcare
platforms offering some services for free amid the epidemic.
    JD Health, an arm of JD.com Inc  JD.O , has seen its daily
volume of respiratory-related online consultations jump by nine
times while mental-health consultations have grown five to seven
times, according to Xiao Jianbo, the company's general manager
of online healthcare. 
    "Most of the requests I've had between the end of January
and mid-February were about the coronavirus," said Liu Yafeng, a
doctor who works fulltime for JD Health. "People are so worried
even just by a sneeze."
    Such is the state of fretfulness that "Always thinking I've
been infected by the virus" has become a trending topic with
more than 570 million views on Weibo, China's Twitter-like
microblogging platform. 
    Liu said he worked around 12 hours per day from end January
to mid-February, but in a positive sign that panic about the
epidemic is receding, he is now working eight hours a day. 
    Baidu Inc  BIDU.O  said its online doctor consultation
platform Wenyisheng, which translates to "Ask Doctor", has been
handling around 850,000 free inquiries daily. Of those 400,000
were respiratory-related, around 50 times the level seen a year
earlier.
    Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd  0241.HK  said it
exceeded 100,000 consultations a day on Jan. 29 and that some of
its respiratory doctors were providing more than 200
consultations daily. It did not provide comparisons with
pre-outbreak levels.
    Online healthcare has long been seen as a promising sector
in China, where there is a dearth of doctors and patients often
have to travel hundreds of miles to see a specialist.
    But the industry had struggled to win over customers and big
listed firms like Alibaba Health and Ping An Good Doctor
 1833.HK  have yet to turn a profit. Compared to other internet
services, online healthcare is not used as frequently and does
not benefit as much from word of mouth, industry executives say.
    "Health consultations are very private, so you don't see a
lot of people sharing their healthcare experience with friends
or followers on social media," said JD Health's Xiao.
    The coronavirus has, however, reset expectations with shares
in Alibaba Health surging 58% for the year to date while Ping An
Good Doctor's stock has climbed 33%.
    While analysts say more venture capital funding could soon
flow into the sector, some industry veterans warn that the
sector has a long way to go.
    "The outbreak has in fact educated the market, but I don’t
think China’s online healthcare has really taken off because of
this," said Simon He, founding partner at Shanghai-based
Eminence Ventures.
    That's only going to happen with innovation in providing
more services such as blood tests, he added.
        

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Coronavirus spreads in Asia, Europe, Middle East fuelling market
selloff     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2AP0BC 
Virus shows plight of China's overstretched doctors   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2AL1G7 
Online site for coronavirus news    https://www.reuters.com/live-events/coronavirus-6-id2921484
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 (Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in
Shanghai; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
 ((Yingzhi.Yang@thomsonreuters.com; +861056692133;))