Alibaba Health (AliHealth; ) is a Chinese company listed in Hong Kong that focuses on providing

digital health Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses informati ...

services and resources. It is currently the healthcare unit of the Alibaba Group (Alibaba).

History

The origins of the company can be traced back to Shui Hing, a Hong Kong retail company that was listed on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is rep ...

in 1971. In 1998, Shui Hing was sold to fashion retailer Easyknit International Holdings and was rebranded to Easy Concepts. In 2000,

CITIC Group CITIC Group Corporation Ltd., formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation (CITIC), is a state-owned investment company of the People's Republic of China, established by Rong Yiren in 1979 with the approval of Deng Xiaoping ...

acquired Easy Concepts and later renamed it to CITIC 21CN. In January 2014, Alibaba and

Yunfeng Capital Yunfeng Capital (YF Capital; ) is a Shanghai-based private equity firm founded in 2010. It was founded by Jack Ma (founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba) and David Yu (founder of Target Media). Background Yunfeng Capital was founded i ...

acquired a controlling stake in CITIC 21CN for US$170 million. It was speculated that the then-private Alibaba was using the acquisition for a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public com ...

so it could be listed in Hong Kong but according to people familiar with Alibaba, there was no intention to do so. Alibaba stated the reason for the acquisition was because CITIC 21CN's drug data platform could help it expand into the healthcare industry. CITIC 21CN was subsequently renamed to Alibaba Health. In 2015, Alibaba agreed to transfer the operations of its online pharmacy business from

Tmall Tmall (), formerly Taobao Mall, is a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail, spun off from Taobao, operated in China by Alibaba Group. It is a platform for local Chinese and international businesses to sell brand- ...

to AliHealth for US$2.5 billion of newly issued shares and convertible bonds. However AliHealth let the deal lapse due to regulatory uncertainties for online drug sales. In May 2018, Alibaba announced it will sell several of the healthcare categories on Tmall to AliHealth for US$1.35 billion. In 2018, AliHealth made multiple investments in offline healthcare companies which included Guizhou Ensure, ShuYu Civilian Pharmacy Corporation and Huaren Health. AliHealth which had been making losses for multiple years, wanted to find ways to generate stable cash flows to improve profitability. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, AliHealth shares reached its highest point as it reported increased revenue due to direct sales. AliHealth which had been reporting net losses each year since inception had reported its first profitable year. In November 2023, AliHealth stated it would acquire AJK Technology Holding Ltd from

Taobao Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba C ...

for US$1.73 billion. The deal would give it certain services of Alibaba's marketing tool to improve profitability.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Alibaba Group Companies in the Hang Seng Index Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Healthcare software companies Health care companies established in 2014 Health care companies of China

History

See also

References

External links