"XXX is a massive, untapped opportunity”

"XXX is a massive, untapped opportunity” is something you hear a lot in India, especially from startups and investors. And why not? A still developing country with an economy that is the world’s sixth largest and a large population that accounts for nearly one out of every 5 humans but with an average age of just 29, it is indeed a massive, untapped opportunity.

 

But tapping those opportunities is the hard part. Ask telemedicine startups.

 

On paper, telemedicine makes its own case. A large and diverse country with people spread across thousands of cities, towns and villages, but with quality healthcare facilities and doctors largely restricted to just cities. Why not bridge the gap using technology and the Internet? If Teladoc and Good Doctor could do it in the US and Asia, why would it not work in India? The opportunity was massive and untapped.

 

The startup most gung-ho about telemedicine was Lybrate, founded in 2014 and within 2 years already the most funded telemedicine startup in India. Unlike many others who followed it, Lybrate chose to focus sharply on creating a marketplace of doctors and connecting them to patients who would, hopefully, pay to remotely consult them. That never materialised, at least at the scale Lybrate hoped. Because, as it turns out, Indians don’t like paying for remote consultations with even doctors!

 

Which is why those who followed Lybrate into telemedicine—Aetna (now part of CVS Health), PolicyBazaar, 1mg, Doctor Insta and mFine—have all followed different models. For some, telemedicine is part of a subscription bouquet, while for others, it is a free service whose purpose is to generate leads for other businesses. Freemium seems to be the new normal.