ByteDance has acquired one of China's largest private hospital chains for 10 billion yuan (HK$11.62 billion), deepening a foray into health care via one of the largest domestic tech deals since Beijing's internet crackdown.
TikTok's Chinese owner is taking full ownership of Amcare Healthcare, which runs women's and children's hospitals in cities from Beijing to Shenzhen, according to an insider. Two ByteDance units now own a combined 100 percent stake of Amcare, according to corporate registry tracker Qichacha.
ByteDance's health care app Xiaohe competes with Alibaba Health Information Technology (0241) and Ping An Healthcare & Technology (1833) in online consultation, hospital appointments and wellness services, a US$89 billion (HK$698.64 billion) area boosted by pandemic measures.
The social media giant joins tech giants from Apple to Amazon in exploring ways to digitize and disrupt the traditional industry. The deal is one of the largest to emerge from Chinese tech since regulators began curbing "disorderly capital expansion" in late 2020, discouraging the big-ticket acquisitions that Alibaba Group (9988) and Tencent (0700) used to get into and dominate new markets.
