Indonesia’s Halodoc aims to simplify access to healthcare

• Connects users to doctors, pharmacies, and laboratory services
• Has more than 22,000 doctors and 1,200 pharmacies on board

INDONESIAN healthtech startup Halodoc enables users to connect licensed doctors, pharmacies, and licensed medical laboratory services. The connection to pharmacies is made via the ApotikAntar delivery service (integrated with Go-Jek’s Go-MED).

Users can communicate with medical professionals via chat, video and voice call on this platform.

Halodoc vice president marketing Felicia Kawilarang tells Digital News Asia that founder and chief executive officer Jonathan Sudharta saw gaps in local health industry, and therefore, set up Halodoc.

“The gaps include inconvenience and a lack of information regarding health. Halodoc was created with the objective of simplifying access to healthcare.”

Launched in 2016, Halodoc now has more than 22,000 licensed doctors from general practitioners to specialists on its platform with 150 to 200 active doctors daily. It has also partnered with 1,200 pharmacies across 25 cities in Indonesia.

Felicia says that the doctors joining the platform are all fully licensed, with a minimum of three years experiences, and most of them are actively working in hospitals.

“Our in-house doctors will interview and verify them. We will provide training on how to interact with patients virtually.”

The website and mobile app platforms allow users to pick preferred doctors with price points from 25,000 rupiah (US$1.7) per 10 to 15 minutes of consultations, depending on the doctor.

Users are also able to purchase medicines (prescribed and non-prescribed) from the nearest pharmacies partner and get them delivered by Go-Jek’s drivers within approximately 40 minutes.

“For references, users can read a doctor’s ‘About Me’ section, and see their ratings on the app.”

Felicia says that Halodoc has seen a 500% growth in medicine orders over a year and 1.5 million downloads of its mobile app.

“The key drivers are our marketing strategy where we keep increasing awareness about healthcare and our services, as well as the efficiency we provide.”

Halodoc’s users are mostly housewives and executives aged between 23 and 35.

Halodoc generates its revenue from consultation fees which are determined by the doctor.

In terms of the local healthtech industry, Felicia says that it is important and challenging for players to raise awareness on health and sees huge potential for healthtech to boom due to the demand.

“We see that there is a lack of awareness about healthcare in Indonesia. People here have the habit of seeking out or visiting a doctor only when they feel really sick, and we encourage them to take better care, by sharing through offline and CSR events. We also provide articles on health and lifestyle on our platform.”

She explains that Halodoc does not compete with hospitals, and suggests that users visit a hospital for more elaborate check ups if they feel worse.

“We think of our competitors as fellow educators who aim to create awareness regarding health and let people know that it is easy to access healthcare now.”

Halodoc partners with insurance providers, namely, Allianz, FWD Employee, Medicillin, and Cigna to enable users to claim their medical bills and targets to expand to more cities in Indonesia by boosting marketing plans.

The healthtech startup raised US$13 million in Series A funding led by Clermont Group, along with GO-Jek, Blibli.com, and NSI Ventures in 2016 and is sets to raise Series B funding next year.

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