WeDoctor

WeDoctor generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2020 primarily from insurance partnerships and prescription drug sales through its pharmacy network, but lost $900 million doing it — a margin structure that made sense when the exit was imminent and looks terminal now that the IPO window is closed. The company's entire business model depends on maintaining preferential access to public hospital infrastructure while Beijing simultaneously tightens data privacy rules, limits platform fees, and scrutinizes any healthcare company that extracts margin from the doctor-patient relationship. Ping An Good Doctor — WeDoctor's primary competitor with a similar model — trades at 0.5x revenue in Hong Kong, down 92% from its peak, which is what price discovery looks like when the regulatory thesis collapses. SoftBank invested $500 million at peak valuation in 2018 and has written down the position twice. No external investor has marked up the valuation since 2019, which means the $6.8 billion figure is a museum artifact from a different regulatory era that nobody believes anymore.

VERDICT: TERMINAL HYPE — SOFTBANK INVESTED $500 MILLION THREE MONTHS BEFORE XI JINPING DECIDED THAT PLATFORM COMPANIES EXTRACTING PROFIT FROM PUBLIC SERVICES WAS IDEOLOGICALLY INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHINESE SOCIALISM