Not only did JD.com upgrade its existing large language model (LLM)-based AI general practice (GP) doctors and chemists, but it also launched over 500 specialist AI entities, including dermatologists, psychiatrists and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) specialists. JD Health’s LLM solution was also selected as one of WAIC 2025’s recommended ESG innovation cases. It further announced that there will be over 1,000 AI doctors ready to assist on the JD Health platform by the end of the year.

Before this update, the GP and chemist AIs were generally seen as not too different from general-purpose AI chatbots in terms of giving medical advice. However, with the specialist entities now online, JD.com’s AI will have the speciality knowledge, clinical experience, cognitive pattern and expression habits based on real doctors, making them digital avatars of the physicians themselves. They can also help with medicine and supplement purchases on the platform and book check-up appointments.

Alongside JD.com, tech goliaths Alibaba and ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, are both investing in AI healthcare, with Alibaba’s “100 AI doctors” (百大AI名医) initiative and its “AI health manager” (AI健康管家) project, and ByteDance’s Xiaohe AI Doctor (小荷AI医生). However, JD Health has outpaced both with its revenue and profit. AI healthcare is one of the hottest sectors today and is worth continued monitoring.

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By the end of 2024, China had over 310 million people who were 60 or older. Data shows that toys for older people, such as smart chessboards, tabletop curling games and elastic wrist balls saw a 124% year-on-year (YoY) increase in search and 70% YoY growth in sales on e-commerce platforms. Customers over the age of 55 are also increasing.

There are three main reasons why toys are needed for older people: social needs, cognitive training and generational interaction. If searching in English, most toys for older people in the West are aimed at cognitive training and rehabilitation for dementia. However, 42% of urban elderly people have “emotional hunger” and “empty nest” syndrome, which is where older people are alone for more than 6 hours every day; toys in China are more of a cure for loneliness. The late baby boomers and early Gen Xers are the top shoppers, as they are more educated, have disposable income and have higher expectations for their quality of life. Their needs go beyond mahjong and poker games like the previous generations.

However, the lack of standards or knowledge of what toys are suitable for older people means that the market has been largely overlooked. Companies in China are exploring innovative designs that incorporate AI, wellness (exercise), as well as social games that require multiple players, such as mini bowling or tabletop games. Providing “emotional value” to these 310 million people might open the door to the next big thing in the “silver economy”.

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However, despite recommendations in ancient texts, the widespread custom of drinking hot or warm water is more recent than most think. Back then, fuel was precious, and most people wouldn’t be able to afford to drink hot water every day, as water was boiled almost exclusively for cooking. For those who could afford it, hot water would be consumed mostly in the form of tea. It was not until the 1950s that drinking plain hot or warm water became the norm in China.

After the Chinese Civil War and the founding of the People’s Republic, the new Communist government decided to quickly increase the hygiene standard in rural areas and launched several “Patriotic Hygiene Campaigns” from the 1950s to the 1970s, targeting diseases like cholera or diarrhoea etc. Studies also suggest that the campaign is a reaction to the alleged “biological warfare” by the United States in North Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953).

These campaigns established the best practices of boiling water to kill germs before drinking and integrated it in the cultural consciousness of generations of Chinese people. A close analogy is how people in medieval England drank beer instead of water, even children, believing water was easily contaminated. In comparison, hot water looks like a healthier option. And in fact, on hotter days, there is also “cooled boiled water” available, if you don’t want to drink iced water.

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Between January and 15 May this year, Rednote users generated notes on weight management in the millions, and engagement in the billions. The top three topics in the categories were: fitness and weight loss, which made up a third of the notes, 16% about health and wellness, and 14% about food and beverages. Trending hashtags range from fat loss lifestyle to building muscle, all the way to how thin people can gain weight.

There are currently 4 growing trends in the weight management category on Rednote: eat, play, care and move. Eat mostly refers to the NHC weight loss menu, which saw its engagement grow 394% in 90 days, with over 3.19 million views. Play is gamified weight loss from brands such as JD.com or Decathlon, where you can earn a 100 RMB (13.91 USD) coupon for every 500g you lose during its weight loss challenges, to the workout app Keep’s in-app medals. Care means the traditional healthcare and wellness methods that are more gradual and gentler on the body. Move refers to casual workouts like “5 minutes quick exercises” that you can do at your workplace.

As a lifestyle platform, Rednote is behind a lot of the “lazy person’s workout” trends that break intense training apart into bite-sized chunks in one’s daily life. With China striving to get healthier, many brands are trying to reach young consumers. Rednote is already shaping how they do that.

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Li Jiaqi framed his argument around the financial burden. “To be honest, if you’ve got the money and time, sure—go for it. If not, skip it,” he said. He emphasized that medical aesthetics require a long-term, high-cost commitment. A single treatment won’t deliver dramatic results—many people can only afford it once—so it’s often not worth it.

“If you think one round of skin boosters will give you flawless skin, it’s just not going to happen. A lot of clinics might hate me for saying this, but it’s the truth. And for more invasive procedures—let’s be real, we’re not celebrities, so don’t take the risk. Nose implants, jaw shaving, facelifts—you’ll just end up regretting it.“

Some netizens weren’t having it. They pointed out that Li Jiaqi himself has had work done, and told him to mind his own business. However, others agreed. “Once you start, you’ll need to spend at least ¥200,000 a year just to keep it up,” one comment read. “And even then, you’re still considered a low-tier client in the medical aesthetics industry.” The controversy reflects deeper tensions around the normalization of medical aesthetics. Maybe it’s not just about Li Jiaqi, but about how Chinese people’s attitudinal shifts around beauty and consumption.

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On 9 April, Huang Zitao announced that he would be releasing 50,000 test sanitary pads for 0.01 RMB (0.0014 USD) on 11 April. He also introduced details about his product, from quality control to the production process. He is putting his reputation on the line to make a safe and high-quality product. He also mentioned on the stream that his wife, singer Xu Yiyang, has also tried 3 or 4 products from his line and is happy with the result.

• #黄子韬卫生巾1分钱试用5万单 Tao 50,000 0.01 RMB sanitary pads: 160 million views on Weibo, ranking number 5 on the Hot Search list
• #黄子韬做卫生巾 Tao makes sanitary pads: 2.6 million views on Rednote with 14,200 notes

However, some netizens aren’t entirely convinced as they found out that Tao is still outsourcing the sanitary pad production to OEM factories and not manufacturing them himself. Others find that his brand, similar to people asking Lei Jun, is a display of the “male-saviour” complex. It does not help with concerns around how male-dominant the feminine hygiene sector is, and is partially the cause of the recent scandals.

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On 6 April, the American coffee chain Starbucks announced the grand launch of its “Sugar-free Flavours” (真味无糖) syrups, meaning you can have all the flavour with no added sugar in your hazelnut latte or mixed berry Americanos. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Starbucks sugar-free new era” reached number 41 on the Hot Search list, with a whopping 110 million views.

In the meantime, the coffee giant also launched its “West Lake Flavour Coffee Festival” (西湖风味咖啡节) in Hangzhou, which will be available to all visitors until 28 April. From hidden menus to parties, coffee lovers in Zhejiang City can have their own tasting sessions and fun at the festival. For the event, Starbucks has also introduced its latest “R&D team member”, Xionglinger (熊灵儿), a bear mascot that doesn’t look much like a “Bearista” but more like Disney’s LinaBell.

Starbucks has been heavy on activations in China this year. From its Snoopy and Lululemon collaborations to its “partner”-centric ESG campaign, the American chain is eager to appeal to Chinese coffee lovers in the face of fierce local competition from Luckin and Cotti Coffee. With the latest push of sugar-free syrups, Starbucks is now becoming more localised than ever.

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The centre of the scandal is one company in Jining, Shandong, Eastern China, which was found to be producing counterfeit sanitary products, including sanitary pads and diapers. The company takes defective materials and scraps from legitimate manufacturers to “recycle” and “refurbish” into new products before using fake packaging to appear as branded products.

• #翻新卫生巾 Recycled sanitary pads: 570 million views on Weibo, ranking number 1 on the Hot Search list
• #近五年爆过雷的卫生巾品牌 Brands that had scandals in the last 5 years: 86.17 million views on Weibo, ranking number 2 on the Hot Search list

Women in China have long faced nightmares about hygiene products from official news and word-of-mouth rumours. This is why the hashtag “Which brand hasn’t had a scandal” yet also reached number 10 on the list. People also jokingly asked Lei Jun of Xiaomi to make pads that are safe. Both show that trust is the most important and it is currently lacking between consumers and brands in this market.

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Naixue

As early as late February, eagle-eyed shoppers spotted that the Naixue (奈雪的茶, formerly Nayuki) branch had turned into a not-yet-announced café/restaurant, also by the tea chain. The café, called “Green by Naixue” was in a trial opening stage, according to the sign outside. The soft launch was later followed by its grand opening on 12 March.

Green by Naixue is a café that, as its name suggests, offers veggie-rich superfoods and healthy meals. The eatery serves up “energy bowls” with the likes of kimchi beef and Thai lime chicken, as well as vegetarian options such as the “Baby Pumpkin Nut Power Bowl”. The prices of these dishes are around 23.8 RMB (3.29 USD) and 28.8 RMB (3.98 USD), significantly lower than other “light meal” (轻食) brands.

Pundits see the move of opening a restaurant as Naixue’s strategy of “self-rescue” after its 2024 results show the chain had projected revenue between 4.8 billion RMB (663.18 million USD) and 5.1 billion RMB (704.63 million USD), down 1% to 7% year-on-year (YoY), with a loss between 880 million RMB (121.58 million USD) and 970 million RMB (134.02 million USD), with profit down 4,500% to 4,950%. Entering the healthy diet market will allow Naixue to get away from the fierce competition and the price war of attrition in the tea sector while tapping into the healthy lifestyle trend.

CHAGEE

Almost a year after HeyTea named German fitness influencer Pamela Reif as its “healthy lifestyle advocate”, CHAGEE recruited Zheng Qinwen as its health ambassador and also named their “global health partner” as actor Dylan Wang Hedi. Wang, one of the top young actors today, is considered a great fit for CHAGEE’s target audience. On Weibo, the topic “CHAGEE global health partner Dylan Wang” (#霸王茶姬全球健康合作伙伴王鹤棣#) gained 330 million views since its announcement earlier this month.

Launched on 6 March, the campaign is based around the return of CHAGEE’s popular “Spring Mountain Awakens” Longjing milk tea from last year (the third “spring mountain tea” that year). This time, the key message is for the teas to be “less burdensome” for your body to absorb. Wang also appears in the promo video, doing a simple workout routine, while inviting viewers to online discussions on social platforms. A new packaging inspired by the Hangzhou leno, whose manufacturing craftsmanship is an intangible cultural heritage (ICH), completes the campaign.

Auntea Jenny

While CHAGEE’s hero product for the healthy drink campaign is still freshly-made tea, just “less burdensome” for the body, Auntea Jenny (沪上阿姨) directly competes with HeyTea in the bottled drink market. Last December, the chain released its first “lively bottle” in a carrot flavour. It advertised the bottle with its “brand liveliness ambassador” Chinese actor Ziqi Wang. Like HeyTea, Auntea Jenny continued to release its lively bottles in different flavours, with the latest being the “dark rose” bottle with five dark-coloured fruits and veg such as grapes and red cabbage. It needs to be pointed out that Green by Naixue also offers healthy tea and bottled drinks in-store, competing with the other chains.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Implementing the 3-year action of weight management years” (#实施体重管理年3年行动#) reached number 4 on the Hot Search list, with 47.22 million views. However, many netizens expressed that the problem with the unhealthy lifestyle stems from long hours at work and “making do” with cheap takeaway meals. With the “anti-involution” initiatives from this year’s Two Sessions, it seems the government is throwing a one-two punch on the matter.

The wellness and healthy lifestyle trend, of course, precedes the government’s effort, which is why the tea chains were already moving in this direction. However, with the government initiative, we might see more participants in this trend, and those tea brands that entered the arena to get away from the competition in that market might find themselves defending their positions. It remains to be seen if HeyTea can really get rid of “involution” and differentiate itself from its rivals.

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The report began when the Beijing Municipal Health Commission released a document on its website which shows that it had approved an application from Douyin Group to set up a hospital in Chaoyang district, called Beijing Arion Hospital (北京爱瑞医院) with a “tbc” at the end of the name. The document shows that it will be a for-profit comprehensive tertiary hospital with over 800 beds. It will also be a joint venture with foreign investors, according to the published registration.

It is not the first time ByteDance has invested in healthcare or in hospitals. The company’s venture in healthcare began in 2020 after acquiring a popular medical website Baikemy.com before launching its own healthcare service app Xiaohe. Through Xiaohe, ByteDance acquired the Amcare Women’s and Children’s Hospital, a high-end private healthcare provider. It acquired several other establishments before launching livestream e-commerce sales on Douyin. In fact, there has also been unconfirmed reports from “sources close to the matter” that the application was not for a new hospital but an expansion of existing Amcare facilities.

The online healthcare market in China is projected to reach 494.3 billion RMB (67.82 billion USD) in 2025. Facing competition from the likes of Baidu, JD.com and Alibaba, Douyin has yet to convert enough traffic to sales or Xiaohe users. Pundits believe that should Douyin expand its offline healthcare presence by building a new hospital or other means, how to profit might be the key question for the social media giant.

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