Ping An Good Doctor, China’s largest health care platform, reports jump in users amid coronavirus, smaller than expected annual loss

Ping An Healthcare and Technology, which reported a smaller than expected annual loss on Tuesday, said its online health care platform had seen a jump in the number of new users amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The platform – already China’s largest by registered users – recorded an increase of 10 times in the number of new registered users every day on average between January 22 and February 6, compared with the first 21 days of January, the company said. Its daily online consultations had also grown nine times on average over the same period.

Ping An Healthcare and Technology, better known as Ping An Good Doctor, is providing free online and telephone consultations to people concerned about catching the deadly virus.

“Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, it has been demonstrated that online medical consultation is an efficient, convenient method that allows patients to avoid catching infectious diseases,” said Wang Tao, its chairman and chief executive, adding that it was referring suspected patients to hospitals.

The outbreak, China’s worst infectious disease epidemic in decades, has prompted unprecedented and economically damaging mass quarantine policies. Moreover, it has killed more than 1,000 people and infected more than 44,000.

The company, a five-year-old unit of Chinese giant Ping An Insurance, posted a net loss of 733.86 million yuan (US$105 million) for 2019, down from a loss of 913 million yuan the previous year. It was also lower than the 872 million yuan average loss estimated by nine analysts Bloomberg polled. The analysts expected its pre-tax net loss to narrow to 620 million yuan this year, before it turns a profit of 40.8 million yuan in 2021.