Alibaba steps forward to invest in medical imaging company in health sector
If a person lives outside China, he/she can easily forget that the business aspirations of Alibaba go far beyond online trading into a number of fields. Recently, the organization took other measures towards developing its health business by investing around $35 million (RMB 225 million) in Wanliyun Medical Information Technology, which is a medical imaging service provider.
After the closure of the investment, the Hangzhou based company’s medical division, Alibaba Health Information Technology (AHIT) will own one-fourth of Wanliyun, according to information filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange (HKSE).
China Resources Wandong Medical Equipment (CRWME) is a major shareholder of Wanliyun. In 1955, CRWME was founded as the first medical imaging service provider, according to a report by Sina Tech. The investment by Alibaba in Wanliyun is an extension of its constantly made efforts to enhance the Chinese current medical technology with the help of cloud computation.
In April last year, the cloud computation service of Alibaba announced of developing a new medical administration platform for hospitals to disseminate details more rapidly and conduct an analysis of aggregated data of patients.
Meanwhile, AHIT will acquire Alibaba’s e-pharmacy business, but regulatory issues have delayed the transfer. The online retailer has a chance to have an impact on the fragmented medical industry of the country because the Chinese government is making reforms that include enhancing information technology systems.
Nevertheless, many pharmaceutical companies are opposing the ambitious plans of the company, which state that Alibaba’s medicine tracking systems will create unfair rivalry and compromise state data.
In other news, Economic Times revealed that the new regulations on Foreign Direct Investment in online markets could speed up the entrance of foreign companies like Alibaba, both as retailers and investors, and possibly alter the online trading landscape of India provided their huge pockets.
The regulations allowing organizations to make 100% FDI in the online “marketplace” model and prohibiting them to invest in the “inventory” model provides clarity to Asian e-commerce companies, such as Tencent, Baidu and Rakuten, on investments in the online trading industry of India, by removing most of the law-related ambiguity that was experienced up till now, state experts.
Alibaba, an important investor in Paytm, declared recently that it was interested in directly beginning its operations in the country in 2016, after the company’s officials, K Guru Gowrappan and Michael Evans had a meeting with Telecommunications Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The organization did not respond to an e-mail from Economic Times on the effect of the new regulations on its strategies. The formulated rules could adversely affect Amazon and Flipkart in the country, bringing these organizations under pressure as they might to reorganize their business to abide by the new laws.
The regulations, announced on March 29, 2016, could make matters difficult for Amazon and Flipkart, as none of the single merchants can contribute one-fourth of the sales on an e-commerce marketplace.
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