In January 2022, on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, a public tertiary Chinese medicine hospital in Beijing, 5 kilometers away from Tiananmen Square, was a mankolo.
The andrology department on the second floor of the outpatient clinic did not see a single patient, but the consultation room was crowded with people, making the already small room seem too crowded.
These are not patients who come to see the doctor, but specially came to record video footage for the deputy director of the Department of Andrology.
Zhang Yan, head of a doctor's MCN (Internet red economic operation) organization, told the health community that the teams he was responsible for had to catch up four or five times a day when they were busy.
The multi-point practice policy has broadened the career path for many doctors with spare strength.
Traffic platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou provide doctors with a new platform to show themselves, while also increasing the possibility of this group to quickly expand their popularity.
Under the huge demand, with "doctors" as the center, a mature business path has been formed.
Part of the "Black Sheep"
"It has become increasingly difficult to catch traffic in the past two years." Zhang Yan sighed.
A large number of homogeneous content, the scarcity of high-quality doctor resources, and the increasingly strict supervision of traffic platforms have made MCN institutions feel more pressure.
"More importantly, although platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have previously cleaned up a large number of doctors who do not meet the registration requirements." But there are still some doctors who are in line with the fundamental purpose of bringing goods, which has ruined the reputation of the industry." Zhang Yan said.
In fact, for the title of "Internet celebrity doctor", insiders are not friendly.
"There are some internet celebrity doctors who are actually marginalized in public hospitals, and those who are really capable simply don't have the time and energy to make videos." A deputy chief physician of a third-class hospital said so.
The doctor revealed that some of the "net red doctors" who are not skilled enough have not even touched the scalpel. Patients who come through the line will be triaged again to the designated hospital. The last to perform the operation were basically their chief surgeons in public hospitals.
Obtaining sub-accounts through a similar "referral fee" is already the most important profit model for such "net red doctors".
"Most of these patients who are drained through the line come from third- and fourth-tier cities where medical resources are relatively weak, and they trust internet celebrity doctors." The above-mentioned doctor also revealed some helplessness about this situation, he was invited to perform surgery on such patients, but was rejected by the person concerned, on the grounds that he "only believed in the TV or big V doctor".
Live streaming is also another means of profitability for "net red doctors". According to a person who once worked for an MCN institution, online live streaming has become a new way for some doctors who cannot do surgery and cannot improve academically. After accumulating a certain number of fans, this kind of "net red doctor" will let the "assistant" act as a fan in the group to carry out goods and complete the monetization of fans.
The person said that such doctors often do not directly bring traffic to the hospitals where they work, so their status in public hospitals is not high, and they may even be "ostracized" by leaders and colleagues.
Scornful title
However, as traffic platforms have stepped up regulation of medical videos, the industry is also shifting to a mature business model.
The head of operations of a private hospital told the health community that the hospital is also obtaining patient traffic through the online platform, but they have high requirements for doctors, first of all, to reach the level of "deputy high" or above, and to have a certain academic status in the industry.
Such experts basically scorn the term "internet celebrity doctor" and do not consider themselves to be internet celebrities.
"Most of these doctors are retired groups, and they have their own requirements for online content, first of all, they do not make any fiction, and the hospital never interferes with the online content of doctors, completely based on the real medical situation as the material." The person in charge pointed out that only by being true can patients agree, and the main purpose of such doctors is to continue to improve clinical research in private hospitals.
Zhang Yan's team will also consider the cooperative doctors from many aspects such as their departments and doctors' backgrounds, and the focus is on being "capable".
Their operating model is to obtain patients from the traffic platform and eventually divert them to the Internet medical platform, allowing doctors to complete the diagnosis and treatment of patients online.
"We don't care about converting patients from online to a doctor-registered public hospital for diagnosis and treatment, which is a small proportion, and the number of public hospitals available for registration every day is limited. Most patients will be directed to the Internet medical platform, and the proportion is quite high. In good times, the partner doctor can receive 160 patients a day from online consultation." Zhang Yan said.
According to him, "The income mainly comes from the high registration fees of these Internet medical platforms, as well as the advertising of some pharmaceutical companies, allowing doctors to introduce some health care products, such as vitamins, in short videos."
The person in charge of private hospital operations said: "Patients who are drained through the traffic platform will eventually be docked to the hospital, and the traffic conversion is also to serve more patients."
At present, Zhang Yan's team is also preparing for the opening of the offline "medical center".
High operational investment
Of course, no matter what the business model, behind it is inseparable from the support of the operation team, and therefore need to pay huge operating costs.
The person in charge of the operation of the above-mentioned private hospital revealed to the health community that if it is a top expert, it is generally necessary to allocate 5 operation personnel, who are specifically responsible for sorting out and editing the teaching content and video materials of the experts. In addition, the operation team is also responsible for the daily communication work of newspapers, magazines and other media.
"At present, there are more than 20 technical developers in the hospital, who are specifically responsible for technical docking with online traffic platforms, and the operating costs of experts are difficult to estimate." The person in charge said.
Zhang Yan revealed that his team will formulate video scripts in advance according to hot topics, and basically take care of all the operations of the doctor's online, including traffic delivery, data analysis, fan base maintenance and conversion in the later stage. If both parties agree on the effect, an exclusive operating agreement will be signed.
According to his estimates, from the beginning of a doctor's operation to the realization of breakeven, the cost of the general upfront investment is about 100,000 yuan.
Such investment is difficult to achieve in public hospitals, so the system built around individual doctors is the fundamental core of maintaining the operation of the industry.
It is reported that the doctor's diagnosis and treatment income from the Internet medical platform will be several times that of public hospitals.
Image source: Figureworm Creative
Avoid low conversions
However, MCN companies are also at risk of failure.
Zhang Yan pointed out, "If a topic of doctors is controversial and leads to reputational damage, then all the investment and efforts in the early stage will be empty."
It is precisely because of the great uncertainty that MCN will be very cautious when choosing what kind of doctor to work with.
High conversion rate departments, doctors with famous teacher backgrounds, and top experts in the industry are the targets of such companies, and doctors who meet the above conditions are more likely to become "popular".
"Due to the pandemic, the team is currently only looking for a partner doctor in Beijing, but this just brings more opportunities. The two words Beijing are themselves golden signboards." Zhang Yan stressed.
"At this stage, the most optimistic is the TCM andrology track." According to the head of an MCN institution that also focuses on the field of traditional Chinese medicine, the cycle of taking over the online operation of andrologists from investment to generating returns takes only three months, because "andrology patients are more likely to accept online diagnosis and treatment, and they are more willing to pay".
However, there are also many departments that have difficulty in monetizing.
For example, pediatrics, although the online content of such departments is more likely to attract the attention of fans, it is ultimately difficult to divert it to the Internet medical platform to become the ultimate paying user. The reason is very simple, most parents are very cautious about children's medication, although most of them participate in free consultation, but they still have doubts about online diagnosis and treatment, prescription mode.
Therefore, it is difficult to form a department and doctor who pays for conversion, and MCN company basically avoids it.
The head of an MCN company told the health community that for the cooperation object, it is best to have the ability to find a discipline leader, and this top expert has a high academic status and is most likely to become a big IP. However, it also depends on the ability of these experts to translate medical expertise into language that is easier for patients to understand.
"Only big experts have the ability to take on patients from all over the country." The person in charge said.
Strengthen the supervision of online behavior
The Physician Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the New Law) will be implemented in March 2022, and multi-site practice will be written into the new law, which is hailed as opening the door for doctors in need.
However, not all doctors have the opportunity to touch the net.
The deputy secretary of a third-class hospital told the health community when talking about the topic of doctors practicing online: "Doctors will never be allowed to practice online during working hours. Blowing hospital air conditioners, sitting in hospital offices, and using hospital nets to earn extra money will be resolutely resisted."
Therefore, whether a doctor can practice online depends to a large extent on whether he has time and energy.
Even if it can be promoted online, it will inevitably collide with the provisions of the new law.
Article 57 of the New Law stipulates that a physician fails to practice in accordance with the registered place, type, or scope of practice. If the circumstances are serious, it will be ordered to suspend the practice activities for more than six months and not more than one year, until the physician's practice certificate is revoked.
Zhang Yan said that strong supervision is a good thing, which can "let those doctors who are in the spirit of harvesting fans get out as soon as possible" and give the industry a clean environment.
In addition, platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have also strengthened the supervision of doctors' online practice.
Therefore, doctors can only record some popular science content in the traffic platform, and they are quite cautious about online words to avoid the risk of being banned.
"For drugs, the online will only say some varieties of 'medicinal and food homology', but they will also be very careful, and generally will not be easily involved." Zhang Yan introduced, "For the doctor's online script, the operation team is also constantly optimizing, and the monitoring of sensitive words on each platform is very strict, and it will be highly confidential, it is difficult to grasp the size, and it can only be constantly tested at present."
Sources | the health community
Written by | Old Zhao next door
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