Reports

China's mobile healthcare market, excluding sales of smart health devices, reached approximately RMB 8.0 bln in 2016, and is expected to reach roughly RMB 13.0 bln in 2017.

Surging growth of the mobile healthcare market is partly a product of China's overall boom in healthcare spending, driven by the rapid aging of the population, the Chinese government's aggressive expansion of universal insurance coverage, the contribution of heavy water and air pollution issues to higher incidence of chronic ailments like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and rising average incomes and changing lifestyles, with Chinese consumers now attaching increasing importance to health and fitness. China's total public and private healthcare spending reached USD 640 bln in 2015 and is expected to grow to USD 1.1 trln by 2020. Similarly, China's spending on pharmaceuticals reached USD 115 bln in 2015, up from USD 26 bln in 2007, making it the world's second-largest drug market after only the U.S.

At the same time, rapidly increasing mobile internet penetration, broader deployment and uptake of 4G mobile services, and new developments in smart hardware and big data technology has created a variety of opportunities for the development and uptake of mobile health and fitness platforms. With the number of mobile internet users in China reaching 695 mln by the end of 2016, traditional industries like healthcare have increasingly embraced the mobile internet as a means of improving efficiency, cutting costs, and providing more targeted, customized services. China's policy makers, as part of their Internet Plus program, have also identified the healthcare sector as one of several key conventional industries targeted for accelerated development through the application of the internet and other information technologies.

As technological, regulatory, economic, and social factors have aligned over the past several years to create attractive opportunities in the development of mobile healthcare and fitness platforms, investment in the sector by venture capital firms, major internet companies, and traditional healthcare and insurance providers has ramped quickly. Many startups in the field have already achieved Series C funding or better, and leading internet and mobile services firms like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have been active both in launching mobile healthcare platforms of their own and investing in mobile healthcare and fitness startups.

To help investors and health industry enterprises identify opportunities among China's quickly growing number of mobile health and fitness apps, platforms, and smart hardware developers, Marbridge has researched and formulated the Chinese Mobile Health and Fitness Industry Matrix. The Q1 2017 edition of the Matrix provides details, in Excel (read-only) format, on:

Mobile Health & Fitness App Developers (220)

• Listing Status (public, to list, private)
• Location (city in which operator/developer is headquartered)
• Company Business Scope
• Company Homepage URL
• Product Overview
• Product Description
• Product Access Points (mobile app, WeChat official account, mobile website)
• User Base
• Downloads
• Funding Information

Mobile Health & Fitness Smart Hardware Developers (50)

• Listing Status (public, to list, private)
• Location (city in which operator/developer is headquartered)
• Company Business Scope
• Company Homepage URL
• Product Overview
• Product Description
• Funding Information

The Q1 2017 Chinese Mobile Health & Fitness Industry Matrix also features a section detailing relevant regulatory issues in China's online and mobile healthcare industry, including explanations of grey areas and methods some service providers are employing to circumvent regulations.