It is the largest chain of private hospitals in China. From now on, Amcare Healthcare will take full ownership of ByteDance, the company behind the famous TikTok application and specialist in online entertainment. The information has not yet been formalized, but sources familiar with the matter have informed the Bloomberg agency and the economic daily Caixin, while the takeover would have been organized via two subsidiaries of ByteDance.
Becoming the owner of a chain of private hospitals will be added to ByteDance’s particularity of offering a very complete health platform (Xiaohe) since the end of 2020, a consequence of a powerful impetus from big tech in the health sector since the COVID-19 pandemic. Opposite, Alibaba responds with its own platform. But this competitor does not have physical infrastructure.
Across the Pacific, in Seattle, Amazon made its third-biggest acquisition last month with One Medical. Following the same motivation as its Chinese competitors, the Seattle firm spent nearly 4 billion dollars to “make a big splash in health”. One Medical’s treasure? A subscription at 199 dollars per year to take advantage of a medical care application with guaranteed appointments within 48 hours in one of the 125 partner centers in the country.
ByteDance Hospitals
Bloomberg, in its article, recalls that the Chinese health market should reach 89 billion dollars. ByteDance’s online platform, which includes appointment booking and wellness services, will now be able to affiliate with Amcare’s seven women’s and children’s hospitals, as well as the centers where the company is authorized to perform in vitro fertilization operations.
Remember that such a takeover operation is quite exceptional in China. The country is all the more severe than in Europe and America in terms of antitrust policy, and does not tolerate when one of its companies climbs relentlessly in capital. Fortunately for ByteDance, which is still not listed on the stock market (it is the most valued startup in the world), its capitalization has fallen somewhat in recent months (under 300 billion dollars).
