China office to open 2018
After 2 years of research of the Chinese digital healthcare marketplace we’re excited to announce that we’re opening an office in Gui’An in the South of China. We expect the office to be operational from early 2018.
Why China? One inescapable fact – in our mHealth marketplace China represents about 35% of the global market, contrasted with just 3% of the global market in the UK. Why wouldn’t you try to access a much larger slice of the action?
Why the South of China? Many cities and provinces of China are keen to encourage inward international investment and knowledge. We’ve had a long association with Nine Health Global led by Elaine Taylor-Whilde who has recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Guizhou government to create a Sino-UK Big Data Healthcare Technology park in the new city of Gui’An, outside Guiyang, the Guizhou provincial capital. Helen Roxborough of the Gurdian recently wrote an interesting article about Big Data and Gui’An (https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/13/china-big-data-guiyang-rapid-transformation-tech-hub). Because of our association with Nine Health and healthcare Gui’An seems an ideal place to set up, and comes with Guiyang government incentives and a very similar climate to the UK, both of which are very welcome.
What’s your plan? We’re taking this opportunity to partner with local Chinese businessmen with experience in digital health delivery in China to see how we can shape our beetroot platform to be aligned with Chinese needs. We’re also expecting to start a couple of digital health/device development projects through our association with Anglia Ruskin University and Southern China University of Science and Technology.
