have seen their shares fall over 60% over the past year. Earnings have been unpredictable on the back of fierce competition, uncertain regulations and changing business models despite a Covid-induced boom in tele-medicine. The latter, for example, switched focus to selling employee healthcare solutions for corporate customers and is not expected to be profitable in the next two years, per Refinitiv.
ByteDance’s core apps business looks a bit shaky. Online advertising is set to slow as the economy cools while new curbs on personal data and algorithms will bite. Crackdowns on online tutoring and video games have cramped the company's expansion into adjacent markets.
to Bloomberg. All that might explain why it is trying to surge into medical services, but the company has more pressing health priorities.China’s ByteDance has taken control of private hospital chain Amcare Healthcare for $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 9, citing people familiar with the deal.
The company, which owns video-apps TikTok and Douyin, bought a 17.6% stake in Amcare in 2021 via its Xiaohe healthcare-focused subsidiary, according to local media, and later increased its stake to 30%. Two Xiaohe units now own 100% of Amcare. Amcare operates seven women's and children's hospitals and two outpatient clinics, as well as five post-partum confinement centres across China, according to its website.Editing by Pete Sweeney and Katrina Hamlin