i n terviews If a digital health company from Europe wants to enter the Asian healthcare market, what should be considered first, before the decision is made?
I am assuming that the team have done extensive research to understand the Asian healthcare landscape because it is radically different from any other market. Whereas a European company is familiar with the universal healthcare system that has a central reimbursement mechanism and a vibrant set of potential customers, and the same can be true of the U.S., it is definitely not the same in Asia Pacific. The first thing that should be considered is the fact that it is completely different. The fact that you have had success with your solution in Europe does not automatically mean you have success in Asia Pacific. And so the first question you should ask yourself is “Do I understand the landscape and do I understand which markets are aligned to the value proposition that I bring to market with my company, and is there a fit?”. What are the most common prejudices that usually stop companies from making this step and which of them are wrong?
Explore Digital Health in Asia China and Japan are leading the global race of digitalisation. Julien de Salaberry Founder and CEO of Galen Growth Asia, explains how the Asian markets work, their specifics, opportunities and traps. 52
OSOZ World 2020
This is a tough question. Some of the prejudices, to be honest, are linked to a self-belief that because we have had a reasonable amount of success, and traction in Europe, the same will be true if they take their solution to Asia Pacific. That is self-belief, but it is also, potentially, erroneous and therefore blindsides you as an organisation. The other of course is that you assume that these markets being very large in demographics are therefore huge markets. Another concern, I think, are the semiinformed people in Europe, who with regards to Asia-Pac, is they think it’s too complicated, they think its culturally too tricky, they believe that the language gets in the way, they think that their systems are very different etc. And most of those perceptions are misleading because it is in fact a fast-growing ecosystem that has a great deal of sophistication to it. If you take digital health as our focus today, 8.2 billion US dollars were invested in digital health in the U.S. last year, whereas 6.4 US billion dollars were invested in digital health in Asia Pacific in the same period. So, hopefully, a testament to the fact that it is incredibly vibrant, it is increasingly sophisticated
