Ex-NetEase Chief Editor Pocket $12 Million For Plastic Surgery App
Plastic surgery app Meidaila (美黛拉) completed a $12 million USD series B round to boost their e-commerce functions, the company announced on Monday. The funding was led by the IDG Ventures and Pingan Ventures, and followed by the previous investor Banyan Fund.
Meidaila’s founder Zhao Ying is the former chief editor of Chinese internet company NetEase. NetEase has been unwillingly called ‘the best startup incubator‘, as companies founded by some former employees of the online news service have been particularly successful in the market.
“The success of the beauty medical platform depends on how quickly they build consumers’ trust,” Zhao Ying said in a statement. “Meidaila’s team hail from NetEase content team, which gives us a strong boost on KOL marketing.”
Meidaila runs a mobile app and a website introducing a number of plastic surgery hospitals and skin care clinics around the area with discounted deals, and arranges consultations with professional plastic surgeons and dermatologists while the company takes a 10 – 20% cut on the service fee.
On average, a customer uses the service five times in four months, and spends about 4,000 yuan ($617 USD) in one quarter, according to the Guangzhou-based startup. Eighty percent of the transactions come from post-1990’s users, the company also noted.
In China, the beauty industry has long been treated separately from the medical industry. Most Chinese cosmetics companies focus mainly on e-commerce, such as Vipshop and Jumei, or on-demand O2O services for hair dressing and nail polish. However, China is now seeing a plastic surgery boom, where the medical industry is complementing the beauty industry, along with skin care clinics. Plastic surgery is now valued at 400 billion yuan ($62.6 billion USD) and is expected to double by 2019, according to the China Association of Plastics and Aesthetics.
The market also includes many domestic players including Beijing-based Zhenyoumei, Hangzhou-based Meimeifenqi, Shenzhen-based Qiumeiwang, and Beijing-based Zhengbameirong. Xi’an-based Visbody in China makes a 3D human body scanner which can predict cosmetic surgery outcomes and virtual fittings.
Image Credit: Shutterstock, Meidaila