Wang Puzhong, CEO of Meituan's core local commerce division, spoke at the 2026 Global Healthcare Summit, jointly hosted by New Frontier Group and Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC), in Hong Kong on the afternoon of August 7th. Wang gave an example, stating that in international cities like Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, visiting an emergency room late at night remains a very troublesome issue. It's not a lack of hospitals or doctors, but the entire decision-making process is very agonizing, and from leaving home to being seen by a doctor, it often takes three hours, yet the actual consultation is only five minutes.
Based on this, Wang pointed out that the accessibility of medical services has always been a very important topic. When discussing how to understand "medical service accessibility," Wang mentioned three key points: first, information accessibility, meaning users know where to find what kind of institutions and services; second, time accessibility, noting that if it takes three hours of queuing for a five-minute consultation, the time is still too long, and patients want it to be as fast as possible; and third, service accessibility, where patients can conveniently access the required medications or relevant examinations upon arrival.
Wang indicated that the "15-minute healthcare service circle" concept has previously focused more on the infrastructure level, such as more health service centers, hospitals, and emergency rooms, but how to make good infrastructure accessible to users is also crucial. Meituan formally established its healthcare and medicine division in 2020. Leveraging its digital infrastructure and the efforts of millions of delivery riders, it has connected 160,000 medical institutions and 250,000 pharmacies, covering 3,000 cities, counties, and districts across mainland China. This has created a nationwide service network in physical space, while also ensuring a 98% on-time delivery rate.
Wang stated that, in fact, from an order perspective in mainland China, Meituan is already the largest drug retail platform, serving millions of users daily. Wang also mentioned that AI is highly beneficial for health management. The core transformation is shifting from "seeking tools only when symptoms appear" to "AI helping with daily health management," turning it into a proactive service. "We are very much looking forward to AI making healthcare truly proactive in the future, such as sensing more information for prediction and helping users make important decisions in health management. Meituan has also invested in several embodied intelligence companies, and there is much room for future collaboration."
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