Since the beginning of this year, Baidu’s actions in the field of medical and health have returned to the public’s field of vision.
Whether Baidu Health launched anti-epidemic measures during the epidemic at the beginning of the year, or at the Baidu World Congress held in September, Baidu Health released a one-stop medical service solution for users, and plans to introduce more, providing a series of actions from health science popularization to one-stop service for medical treatment, which has attracted a lot of attention.
As we all know,In recent years, Internet giants such as Ali, Tencent, JD.COM and Today’s Headlines have made frequent moves in the medical and health field.. The events in this month or so alone are: Ali Health APP was renamed as "Medical Deer" to further strengthen the core competitiveness of doctors in terms of quality and operational ability; Tencent Medical Health and Weizhong Bank set up a joint laboratory to explore intelligent applications in the medical field; The first respiratory center in JD Health is intended to create a new model of online+offline chronic disease management; ByteDance announced the completion of the wholly-owned acquisition of the medical popular science knowledge platform Encyclopedia Medical Network for hundreds of millions of yuan …
All the "heroes" from all walks of life entered the venue, and the competition became increasingly fierce.. For Baidu,Through a series of actions such as independently registering Baidu Health Company and entering the Internet Hospital, it is bound to have clearer ideas and strategic plans in the medical and health field..
What has Baidu Health done in the past year? What is the logic behind it? In what direction will the future develop? In response to these problems, Arterial Network exclusively interviewed Yang Minglu, general manager of Baidu Health and Baidu Health Medical Code.
Baidu Health’s Position in Baidu
Before understanding Baidu’s health, we must first understand Baidu and its position in the times.
As the world’s largest Chinese search engine and a leading platform-based enterprise, Baidu is in the limelight in the era of PC Internet. When it landed on Nasdaq in 2005, it created the American myth of China Stock Exchange, and its share price rose by 354% on the first day. In the following years, Baidu became Ma Pingchuan, and once surpassed Tencent and Ali to become the first Internet company in China by market value.
However, in the process of turning to the mobile Internet, Baidu hesitated several times, which made it fall behind in the mobile ecology, and had to invest huge resources to catch up in the following years. butWhat has caused this great change is the information islands built by countless apps under the wave of mobile Internet, and the result is that the entrance of search engines based on PC Internet is gradually declining.
When the user’s habit of looking for information began to be scattered on various apps, the problem before Baidu became particularly urgent, that is, how to stick users on search? The answer given by Baidu is service. That is to say,Baidu wants to change from "connecting people and information" in the past to“Connect people, information and services. "
It is under this idea that Baidu takes measures to link creators and service developers, relying on the huge traffic portal of search and the underlying technologies such as AI, and providing users with fast and efficient end-to-end services with the help of small programs and other sectors. In business,Baidu is deeply involved in vertical industries and provides more products than information search in medical and e-commerce fields.
According to the characteristics of various industries, Baidu has different specific landing methods.According to 36Kr’s report, in the fields of real estate and automobiles where Baidu has advantages, Baidu chooses the "white card" mode, that is, providing small program templates to enterprises, allowing enterprises to build their own CRM systems, and then precipitating the traffic of users buying houses and cars; In the fields of express delivery with a high degree of informationization and mature industry solutions, Baidu chooses the "aggregation" mode, that is, it brings together manufacturers such as SF Express and Yuantong by means of small programs. In the field of medical care, which is of strategic significance to Baidu, Baidu chose the "self-built" model, that is, doing deep and heavy.
It is also in this context that the strategic significance of Baidu Health has gradually become clear. "It can be said that Baidu Health is a brand-new brand that we officially launched in March. It isComprehensive upgrade of health category based on Baidu search. On the one hand, we will use industrial thinking to provide a complete service, so as to better connect people and services, realize online and offline integration, and at the same time express the determination of Baidu to re-invest in a healthy track."Yang Minglu told arterial network.
Under this idea, Baidu Health has joined more than 1,000 public hospitals and 250,000 doctors (as of August 2020), forming a content ecology with Baidu Health Medical Code as the core and a service ecology with Baidu Health Doctor as the core.

Create two fist products and form a dual ecology of "content+service"
Before the official establishment of Baidu Health Brand, Baidu’s health products and services focused on information resources, including a large number of high-quality authoritative popular science content. "Baidu has accumulated in the health field for more than 10 years." Yang Mingxi said that as a huge Internet health traffic portal for the whole network,The average daily search volume of users for health content on Baidu has been more than 200 million.
In addition to the huge traffic, under the influence of the sudden COVID-19 epidemic this year, Baidu found thatThe demand of C-end users for health consultation, especially online consultation, registration and other Internet medical services is growing rapidly.. existOn the G-end and B-end, the national policy has been gradually liberalized. No matter national ministries, local governments or public hospitals, they are actively embracing the Internet and trying to make offline high-quality medical and health resources online..
be exactly; preciselyBased on the demand and attention of both supply and demand sides to Internet medical careOn the one hand, Baidu constantly responded to people’s health needs on the Internet during the epidemic through product update iterations. On the other hand, Baidu launched intensive discussions within the organization, comprehensively upgraded the original Baidu search health category, and officially launched the brand-new Baidu Health brand in March this year.
From the launch of the new brand to the present six months, Baidu’s health actions are frequent.On March 13th, Baidu App released the "Baidu Health Online Medical Big Data Report", which showed the development trend and user characteristics of the Internet medical platform under the epidemic situation through the analysis of massive big data. On April 4th, Baidu Health organized an exchange meeting on China-Ecuador epidemic prevention experience. Academician Li Lanjuan, a member of the expert group of Baidu Health Medical Code, exported China’s anti-epidemic experience to officials of Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health and other ministries.
On May 14th, Baidu’s health service was completely upgraded. Users can click on the doctor’s head at any time when watching the live broadcast, enter the doctor’s directional consultation channel, and start one-on-one consultation, thus realizing one-stop direct access from live knowledge popularization to medical consultation service. On July 2, Baidu Health officially launched the "Center". At present, hundreds of authoritative endocrinologists have led the settlement to jointly build an online and offline integrated platform for doctors and patients …
"Behind Baidu’s healthy and rapid layout is toSolve the user’s demand for online healthy full link, and give the corresponding service. weWhat we are doing and will do is to meet the needs of users in a refined way.. Yang Minglu said that in addition to extended services, Baidu Health will further expand its content advantages and provide users with more authoritative, comprehensive, personalized and accurate content and information services.
Based on this,Baidu Health has formed a content ecology with Baidu health medical code as the core and a service ecology with Baidu health asking doctors as the core..
Specifically, Baidu Health Medical Code is an authoritative health knowledge science popularization public welfare project initiated by Baidu Health, and it combines top medical resources at home and abroad to build an authoritative medical health science popularization platform.Relying on the big data of users’ needs, we provide users with authoritative, accurate, rich, comprehensive, easy-to-understand and advertisement-free health science knowledge through various carriers such as text, video, long pictures and questions and answers, and directly reach Baidu’s whole platform, so that users can easily obtain reliable health knowledge.
As of September 2020,Baidu Health Medical Code has reached cooperation with more than 800 national top medical experts and more than 100 authoritative organizations.The members of the expert group are academicians in the national medical field, leading academic experts, the chairman of the society/association or the leader of the study group, and leading scholars in the formulation of disease guidelines.
It is worth mentioning that the content of Baidu health medical code will be analyzed on Baidu search first, that is, what is the most concerned problem of users about this kind of disease, and then the framework of this problem will be built to conduct three trials and three schools with experts.. "Producing content according to users’ needs can make the content closer to users’ demands. In terms of content, in addition to authority, it should also be easy to understand and read. Along this direction, we are constantly expanding the scope of content production, including video, illustration and other content forms.Next, Baidu Health will also have physical examination, health insurance and other aspects to cover the health science needs of users.. Yang Minglu said.
Another fist product, Baidu Health Ask Doctors, is a 7*24-hour online consultation service platform launched by Baidu Health.The specific operation method is to search for "ask a doctor" in Baidu, or search for "Baidu Health" through Baidu APP, and you can use the service by entering the applet.
Up to now,Baidu Health Ask Doctors More than 100,000 doctors in public hospitals have answered users’ inquiries online.In addition to doctors directly connected to Baidu Health, major online consultation products on the market, such as Ping An Good Doctor, Good Doctor Online and JD Health, have been connected to Baidu Health Doctor Platform to provide users with the most extensive and accurate online consultation service.The average response time is 2 minutes..
During the epidemic,Baidu Health Doctor has provided online medical consultation services for netizens around the world for more than 100 million times, with more than 850,000 consultations per day. It has become a leading online consultation service platform..
"In this process, we found that many users’ needs for Baidu health can be well met, including registration, online drug purchase, health mall and other aspects. Based on Baidu Health applet, we are also trying to provide users with all-round services. " Yang Minglu said that Baidu Health has made frequent moves in the development of new business in the past few months, and it may become more intensive in the future.
Live broadcast, layout of Internet hospitals, Baidu Health continues to open up new business lines.
In addition to the two fist products of Baidu Health Medical Code and Baidu Health Doctor,Baidu Health has also opened up some new business lines, such as Baidu Health Live and Internet Hospital..
Taking live broadcast as an example, Baidu health team found that the general public had great demand for epidemic prevention knowledge when the epidemic broke out, so it set up a live broadcast team at the first time. By promoting the establishment of live broadcast products and functions in Baidu and contacting top experts in foreign hospitals, peer-to-peer live broadcast operation was realized in the shortest time.
On May 13th, at the high-end forum of global anti-epidemic experience exchange held by Baidu Health Medical Code under the guidance of the Talent Exchange Service Center of the National Health and Wellness Commission, more than 20 domestic top authoritative medical experts were invited to visit Baidu Health Live Room to share China’s anti-epidemic experience with many overseas health institutions and experts. Not only that, Baidu Health opened the "war epidemic live broadcast room" overseas during the epidemic, invited authoritative experts and first-line medical staff to help overseas users acquire epidemic prevention knowledge, and Baidu opened the live broadcast capability to overseas embassies.
As of September, the cumulative viewing volume of Baidu Health Online Live Broadcasting reached 150 million times, and the maximum viewing volume of a single live broadcast was 3.52 million times..
On the Internet hospital business line,Baidu established Yinchuan Baidu Health Internet Hospital Co., Ltd. on March 18th, and obtained the first Internet hospital license of Baidu Health in Hainan in May this year..
At the beginning of July,Baidu Health officially launched the "Diabetes Center", which is the first time in the industry to launch a new model of doctor-patient integration specialist Internet hospital.. This modeBy aggregating domestic authoritative expert resources,Including the director of the Endocrinology Department of the General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the chairman of the Tenth Committee of the Endocrinology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, and the expert team led by Professor Mu Yiming, the president-designate of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, andTogether with Tangyouyun Health, through the establishment of an integrated service platform for doctors and patients, the online consultation function of doctors’ outpatients was launched, and professional tools such as graphics, texts, videos and tests were provided for doctors to help doctors track patients’ condition online and interact with patients at any time..
Besides,Baidu health opens up the whole industry chain of diabetes prevention and treatmentIn-depth cooperation with well-known domestic pharmaceutical enterprises, insurance and physical examination third-party institutions, under the guidance of authoritative experts, provide patients with multi-dimensional services such as diet, exercise, monitoring, education and medication, and formulate feasible self-management and treatment plans to cultivate patients’ autonomy in health protection and disease management.
Yang Mingxi said,Baidu Health customizes small programs for public hospitals.In addition to the regular online check,Baidu Health cooperates with public hospitals and can directly interact with hospital doctors in Baidu ecology., can complete online consultation, online prescription, online appointment examination and other services, reduce the number of unnecessary visits by patients, improve the work efficiency of doctors and the operational efficiency of hospitals, thus helping public hospitals to establish hospitals without walls.
“Baidu Health is to satisfy users’ full-link health experience from content to service and from online to offline.. "
Internet giants’ dream of medical science popularization
Not only Baidu, but also major Internet giants have launched a "formation" in the medical and health field.From the perspective of specific business forms, it mainly focuses on medical science popularization, Internet medical care, medical e-commerce, and smart medical care.
In terms of medical science popularization,Baidu Health Medical Code, Tencent Medical Code and Encyclopedia Medical Network acquired by ByteDance are three main products. All three medical code products provide users with professional medical content through cooperation with professional doctors and institutions.
Why do giants pay attention to medical content? There are three main reasons.
First, there is a great demand for healthy content.According to the survey of Penguin Think Tank, in the past few years, there have been 40,000+medical health media in China, with a weekly reading volume of more than 1 million, and the daily search volume of medical health problems has reached 60 million.
Second, the conversion rate of services is relatively high.For users who search for health information and knowledge, many of them have suffered or may suffer from related diseases, so this group has potential demand for follow-up medical services such as online consultation and medical e-commerce. Therefore, through the deep cultivation of medical content, we can not only increase user stickiness and strengthen brand awareness through high-frequency content services, but also facilitate the subsequent users to become customers of medical services.
Third, the complexity of health information is high, and the content on the market is chaotic.In the market, some enterprises have a lot of manuscript-washing popular science in order to obtain illegitimate interests, which leads to a lot of mixed health information in the market, and medical knowledge is constantly iterative and updated, so it is difficult for users to find reliable medical knowledge content.For internet giants, sufficient funds and huge traffic portals, coupled with strong resource integration capabilities, enable them to quickly cut into the field of professional medical content and complement their own ecological forms.
Specifically, Baidu Health Medical Code, Tencent Medical Code and Encyclopedia Medical Network.There is little difference between the three companies in product ideas.For example, in the traffic portal, the three companies do not directly import the traffic into their respective medical code platforms, but leave the traffic on the original platform: Baidu Health Medical Code mainly obtains the traffic through Baidu search, Tencent Medical Code obtains the traffic from WeChat or QQ search portal, and Encyclopedia Medical Network obtains the traffic from today’s headlines and headline search.
Whether the three products will go out of obvious differentiation in the future depends mainly on the ecology to which their products are attached..
BAT has entered the Internet medical care, where will it go in the future?
Where the tuyere is, the giant’s footsteps are there.
After a period of "silence" in previous years, Internet medical care affected by the epidemic has ushered in a second take-off.As the most likely way to subvert and reconstruct traditional medical treatment, Internet medical treatment is once again placed high hopes..
As the three Internet giants in the same BAT,Tencent and Ali entered the game as early as the first wave of Internet medical care.
In 2014, Ali bought a 54.3% stake in CITIC 21st Century at a cost of 170 million US dollars, and what it valued was the only "drug supervision code system" in China at that time. Through a series of capital operations, Ali Health (now renamed as "Medical Deer") has obtained the right to operate Tmall Medical Museum and the traffic entrance of Ali products such as Alipay.After gradually gaining a foothold in the field of medical e-commerce, it began to operate with the ecology that Ali is good at.
Tencent also launched the "WeChat Smart Hospital" in 2014, and successively included Lilac Garden, Micro-Medicine, Zhuojian and Good Doctor Online in its own territory by means of "receiving", "merging" and "investing".It is worth mentioning that in 2018, Tencent’s Penguin Doctor and Almond Doctor merged into Penguin Almond, which indicates that Tencent, who "watched the war" as an investor, officially left the game and participated in the chess game of medical health..
After about six years of layout,The figures of Ali and Tencent have almost penetrated into all aspects such as registration, consultation, after-diagnosis service, medical e-commerce, and doctor service.

Although the brand-new brand was re-launched this year, it is not difficult to see from the above discussion.Baidu Health has formed a differentiated path through the dual ecological layout of "content+service", and has covered medical and health-related service functions such as online consultation, appointment for drug delivery, appointment for registration, psychological consultation and insurance..
What needs special attention is that under the strategic layout of dual ecology, Baidu Health has achieved the ability to reach and connect users in the whole scene through the organic combination of content and services.. That is to say,Through the high-frequency portal of content, Baidu Health can guide users to related services in the future.For example, after a user sees a high-quality article about diabetes, he can directly consult with the doctor online and buy medicine.
of course,It is worth thinking that behind the booming Internet medical industry, the problems it faces are still very prominent, especially in the closed-loop path of business model, and the existing Internet medical enterprises are still in the early stage..
From the development of Internet medical care in the past 10 years, such as free online registration and online consultation with low customer price.The pure online model is difficult to cover the cost, and the growth space is limited in the long run.. And forAs the support of the Internet, offline self-built hospitals have become a business with heavy assets.Finally, ifRelying on public hospitals to develop Internet hospitals blindly, platforms will not be able to avoid the situation after public hospitals stand on their own feet in the future..
So even a giant like BATJ,There is still a long way to go in the face of the vast field of medical health.
But anyway, BaiduThe change of thinking from "connecting people and information" to "connecting people, information and services" has given Baidu Health more possibilities for strategic expansion.And this may become one of the important breakers in the field of medical health with Baidu Health.
What needs to be noted is that, unlike other industries, the medical and health field needs more patience, care and sincerity. Only under the care of this "three hearts" can the saplings of enterprises take root, grow leaves and bloom in the medical and health field.