The Hanjiao Group, a distributor of healthcare products for the middle-aged and elderly segments in China, has launched a new home care service platform for Chinese seniors.

WHY IT MATTERS

Yiyuan, a cloud-based online-to-offline service platform, connects merchants and consumers within the health and senior care industry. It leverages technology to provide more efficient and targeted home care services to groups of middle-aged persons, the elderly and people with disabilities in China.

Based on a press statement, the platform offers six services, including coordination with senior care institutions, home care services, housekeeping services, home appliance maintenance, senior socialisation and meal services.

THE LARGER TREND

China has one of the world's largest ageing populations, according to the World Health Organization. In 2019, there were around 254 million people aged 60-64 and 176 million individuals aged 65 and above. Over the next two decades, the number of Chinese people over the age of 60 is seen to rise by 28% to an estimated 402 million people.

In recent years, several blueprints and policies were enacted in China to promote the use of technology in delivering care services for the elderly. The Chinese State Council in 2017 issued a Five-year Plan for the Ageing Development and Elderly Care Services that established a community-based elderly care service information platform, service order system and emergency rescue mechanism.

In the same year, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, together with other government agencies, issued its Five-year Plan for Healthy Ageing that proposed the use of IoT, big data and other information technologies to explore new models of care services for the elderly. It also built smart health and caring service platforms for medical authorities and senior care service providers to deliver health guidance, chronic disease management, safety monitoring and other care services.

ON THE RECORD

"The Yiyuan platform was developed based upon our 14 years of accumulated experiences and resources in middle-aged and elderly markets.  We believe that our Yiyuan platform combines the best of technology and our industry know-how to enable us to provide targeted products and services on an integrated basis to meet the demands of our middle-aged and senior communities," Hanjiao Chairman and CEO Xiangyang Tian said.