Battle Against the Epidemic: Gaorong Ventures Portfolio Companies Continue Their Efforts to Support COVID-19 Response | Rongbao · January
What matters most is action.
The first issue of Rong Bao for 2020 is a special one.
The COVID-19 outbreak remains severe. Since the virus emerged, Gaorong Ventures and our portfolio companies have been closely monitoring the situation and contributing to the fight against the epidemic in our own ways (click to review our actions).
Quarantine the virus, not responsibility and empathy. In the face of so much uncertainty, we've seen socially responsible companies demonstrate not only the courage to confront difficulties head-on, but also the rational decision-making and decisive action to back it up.
Some have rushed aid to affected areas however they can. Others have leveraged their platforms, technology, and services to solve real problems for industries and society. Many have simply done their jobs with diligence and commitment, becoming the doers in this battle against the epidemic.
In this issue of Rong Bao, we've compiled some of the actions the Gaorong family has taken so far to help combat the outbreak. Together, we'll get through this!
Leveraging Platform Power to Support Frontline Epidemic Response
We've seen internet leaders, as infrastructure of the information age, step up with remarkable speed and influence during this extraordinary period. A wave of innovative internet companies across e-commerce, healthcare, insurance, and transportation have continuously rushed support to the frontlines.
Pinduoduo: Ensuring supply of anti-epidemic goods, donating 1 million medical masks to Hubei, and establishing a 100 million yuan anti-epidemic fund with Zhejiang University
Following the outbreak, Pinduoduo quickly activated emergency protocols for special goods, coordinating international and domestic medical and health brands and production resources to ensure supply during this critical period. On January 23, Pinduoduo launched an "Anti-Epidemic Special Channel," using its "10 Billion Subsidies" program to fully cover medical and health supplies and medicines for epidemic prevention. By January 31, Pinduoduo had allocated over 600 million yuan in special funds for subsidies on medical and health products.
On January 31, Pinduoduo announced donations of 1 million medical-grade masks, 20,000 protective suits, 200,000 medical gloves, and 30 tons of German-imported medical disinfectant to Hubei province. Beyond Wuhan, nearly half of these supplies were subsequently distributed to other areas in Hubei including Huanggang, Xiaogan, Tianmen, and Xiangyang.
Pinduoduo also activated its agricultural "Sky Network" system to procure 100 tons of fresh vegetables for direct delivery to cafeterias at four Wuhan hospitals, enough to cover roughly one month of vegetable meals for approximately 5,000 frontline medical workers. The first batch of vegetables began shipping directly from production areas to hospital cafeterias on February 2. Going forward, Pinduoduo will continue providing fresh fruits and vegetables weekly to Wuhan medical institutions in need.
Earlier, on January 29, Pinduoduo and Zhejiang University jointly established a "Viral Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Special Fund" with 100 million yuan in committed capital. The fund brings together over ten leading Chinese experts and scholars in infectious disease and respiratory disease prevention and treatment. Donations will be dedicated to supporting viral infection and respiratory infectious disease prevention and treatment, particularly COVID-19 response support and scientific research.
Ping An Good Doctor: Establishing an Anti-Virus Command Center and Launching Online Consultations
Leveraging the advantage of internet healthcare's no-contact service model, Ping An Good Doctor provided public health guidance through online consultations, helping avoid cross-infection and reducing pressure on offline prevention and screening.
Immediately after the outbreak, Ping An Good Doctor established its anti-virus command center, organized a panel of medical experts, conducted disease training for all doctors, and monitored the evolving situation in real time. It was among the first to open a novel coronavirus consultation section on its app, implementing a "3 Questions, 3 Answers" online consultation prevention mechanism, and launched a "Free Masks, Free Doctor Consultations" campaign, distributing 10 million masks to multiple provinces and cities nationwide.
Ping An Good Doctor also coordinated channels to allocate medical masks for frontline epidemic response. On January 27, it urgently procured 200,000 masks for定向捐赠 to Wuhan hospitals; on February 3, it allocated another 250,000 medical masks through multiple channels for donation to medical and health institutions across multiple provinces and cities.
Additionally, Ping An Good Doctor has partnered with health commissions in Wuhan, Guangdong Province, Fuzhou, and Hefei, among others, to launch free epidemic consultation services, providing novel coronavirus inquiries and epidemic prevention guidance at no cost.
Shuidi Company: Raising over 55 million yuan in charitable funds, providing free "Anti-Epidemic Insurance" to frontline medical staff and journalists
Since the outbreak, Shuidi has mobilized and connected charitable organizations, caring enterprises, insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, platform users, and caring netizens within its ecosystem, coordinating resources through online and offline combined operations with remarkable efficiency, fully demonstrating the speed of "Internet + Philanthropy." As of February 2, Shuidichou platform together with multiple enterprises and charitable organizations had raised over 55 million yuan through online and offline channels.
Meanwhile, 1.572 million disposable medical masks, 60,000 N95 masks, 1.53 million pairs of gloves, 60,000 protective goggles, and 56,000 bottles of disinfectant procured by Shuidi and its caring partners in batches have been shipped to Hubei and other areas.
Shuidi's insurance marketplace, Shuidi Insurance Mall, partnered with AXA to launch "Anti-Epidemic Worry-Free Insurance," the first insurance product covering both frontline medical staff and journalists, provided free of charge to these workers. As of February 2, approximately 50,000 people had enrolled.
Hellobike: Free rides for all frontline epidemic response personnel nationwide
To actively participate in epidemic response efforts, Hellobike distributed 12,000 shared bike ride cards from January 25-29 to sanitation and urban management workers in Wuhan who were maintaining urban hygiene and order during the epidemic, ensuring mobility for epidemic-related needs.
Based on ride tracking data, shared bikes and e-bikes played an active role in maintaining normal urban operations during this special period. On January 29, Hellobike announced free rides for all frontline epidemic response workers nationwide, providing daily mobility convenience to better support their epidemic response work. Hellobike called on interested institutions (medical, disease control, urban management, sanitation, public security, traffic police, etc.) to contact them at 95218900 or service@hellobike.com for rapid dedicated support.
Going All Out to Safeguard Livelihoods and Provide Industry Solutions
Beyond the "most beautiful逆行者" working tirelessly on the frontlines, fighting the epidemic requires societal consensus and collective effort to maintain orderly business and daily life. Companies from education, fresh retail, artificial intelligence, enterprise services, and industrial internet are actively leveraging their product, supply chain, technology, and service advantages to safeguard livelihoods and provide practical industry solutions, continuously conveying confidence and fulfilling their social commitments.
Gaotu Techedu: Classes Suspended But Learning Continues, Donating 20 Million Yuan in Winter Break Live Courses to Wuhan Primary and Secondary Students
"Classes suspended but learning continues" became one of the most important goals for online education companies supporting epidemic response. On January 26, Gaotu Techedu announced a series of measures to help students continue learning from home.
Specifically, Gaotu Techedu + Gaotu Classroom donated 20,000 winter break live courses worth 20 million yuan to primary and secondary students in Wuhan, with guaranteed consistency in teaching content, class duration, and instructors with regular winter break courses to ensure teaching quality and service standards.
Additionally, Gaotu Techedu made its online live teaching tool "Weishi" available free to training institutions nationwide, helping smaller institutions upgrade their online service capabilities. Its "Chengxi Business School," specializing in training for education industry professionals, launched free online transformation-themed training to help offline institutions transition to online services.
Huikedu Group: Opening Multiple Teaching Resources and Online Courses Free to Society
As a leading enterprise in Chinese higher education and new vocational education, Huikedu Group announced on January 30 that it would open teaching resources and online courses free to universities and working professionals nationwide, hoping to support universities and help teachers, students, and learners access quality education services conveniently from home.
For universities, Huikedu opened its Gaoxiaobang platform free of charge, providing online courses, technology platforms, and consulting services to universities and students, supporting delayed-start universities in building online teaching capabilities, effectively helping students study courses and complete hands-on experiments online at home, and enabling teachers to quickly build online courses without entering studios.
For university teachers, Huikedu Cloud opened its big data and AI cloud lab resources and computing resources free, 24/7 with no barriers, helping teachers conduct online teaching, remote interaction, online practice, cloud-based lesson preparation, and teaching innovation during the epidemic.
For learners in Hubei, Kaikeba — Huikedu's vocational skills video learning platform — opened VIP membership benefits free to Hubei region residents and Hubei-registered individuals from February 7 through the end of the epidemic.
Dingdong Maicai: Ensuring Supply, No Price Hikes, Being the People's "Vegetable Basket"
With the Spring Festival period affected by the epidemic, ensuring fresh vegetables at home every day became a major necessity. On January 23, Dingdong Maicai formally established an emergency response team to comprehensively strengthen product supply. CEO Liang Changlin stated: "Our top priority is ensuring supply and no price increases, especially for our top 100 vegetable categories by sales volume — the daily staples citizens buy most — we must guarantee supply."
During the Spring Festival, Dingdong Maicai leveraged its supply chain advantages to closely communicate with core brand partners across categories, pushing for overtime production, optimizing inventory, and increasing procurement and stockpiling of vegetables, meat and eggs, live fish and shrimp, dairy products, and other categories.
Additionally, ensuring adequate delivery capacity was a top priority. During the Spring Festival, 75% of Dingdong Maicai's delivery personnel, front warehouse staff, and central warehouse staff remained on duty, providing door-to-door vegetable delivery for citizens.
Qian Damay: Fully Ensuring Market Supply, Over 1,000 Stores Operating
Facing the epidemic, Qian Damay actively responded to municipal government calls, comprehensively implementing prevention measures, prioritizing core urban area store operations, and fully ensuring market supply. To ensure stable prices, market stability, and public peace during the prevention and control period, Qian Damay actively coordinated supply sources and increased material reserves, practically safeguarding the people's "vegetable basket." On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year (January 30), 1,112 stores across districts officially opened.
Seeyon: Launching Epidemic Reporting Management Applications
To help enterprises address epidemic prevention and control challenges before and after resuming work, collaborative management software provider Seeyon successively rolled out solutions. On January 24, it launched a real-time online epidemic reporting tool, free to society; on January 29, based on collaborative cloud data collection and analysis services, it comprehensively upgraded and launched an epidemic reporting management application for free trial by enterprises nationwide, providing comprehensive support for enterprises to track employee status; additionally, it quickly launched epidemic reporting form templates for different industries and scenarios including enterprises, medical institutions, schools, and grassroots communities, free for all organizations to use.
Zhuiyi Technology: Launching Free AI Epidemic Robot Services
Zhuiyi Technology launched free AI epidemic robot services, quickly and conveniently deployable on WeChat public accounts and other new media channels, helping government departments, medical institutions, educational organizations, enterprises, property communities, and charitable organizations rapidly build intelligent service capabilities to win the epidemic battle.
The epidemic robot will be provided free, with 24/7 intelligent service, answering questions about epidemic dynamics, disease knowledge, prevention guidelines, online consultations, and quarantine monitoring, providing round-the-clock, fully automated customer service for epidemic response, contributing charitable strength to epidemic prevention and control.
Lingdi Technology: Providing Online Collaboration Solutions for Apparel Enterprises
Facing apparel enterprises challenged by the epidemic, Lingdi Technology's apparel industry 3D digitalization service platform Style 3D provided new online collaboration models for apparel enterprises, supporting online design, remote collaboration, and order protection.
STYLE 3D focuses on apparel ODM application scenarios, providing platforms and solutions for finished garment and fabric design, display,沉淀, storage, and sharing, with nearly all operations from apparel design to production completable on the platform. STYLE 3D also moved traditional offline style review and confirmation processes online, reconnecting blocked collaboration channels. Through the STYLE 3D platform, apparel enterprises can basically maintain normal design and sampling operations, making collaborative communication more efficient and maximizing enterprise benefits.
Baiwancang: Providing Free Procurement Management SaaS Systems for Manufacturing Enterprises
Facing manufacturing enterprises affected by the epidemic, Baiwancang provided free procurement management SaaS systems, helping manufacturing enterprises complete procurement cost reduction without leaving home, while expanding mature online sales channels.
Baiwancang's digital intelligent supply chain platform can seamlessly integrate with ERP systems, providing full-process quality supplier online management and supply chain optimization.
Rivers Converging to the Sea, Love and Aid Continue
Since the epidemic prevention and control battle began, the power of unity and shared perseverance has continuously gathered. Gaorong portfolio companies' charitable donations are ongoing.
NYSE: ZEPP: Raising 10 million yuan to procure medical materials for donation to affected areas, and mobilizing company suppliers and global channel resources to locate urgently needed medical materials for epidemic prevention and control.
HUYA Inc.: Donating 7 million yuan to Hubei Provincial Charity Federation and 3 million yuan to Guangzhou Charity Federation, totaling 10 million yuan in special epidemic prevention funds for novel coronavirus infection prevention and control.
Beibei Group: Providing batch aid of 1 million masks and other medical protective materials to Wuhan medical institutions: on January 25, the first batch of 100,000 medical masks was shipped to Wuhan area hospitals; on January 26, the second batch of 500,000 medical masks and other materials was successively shipped to hospitals in Wuhan, Huanggang, Enshi, and other areas.
Danke Apartments: Making available a batch of dedicated apartments near key Wuhan hospitals for medical staff to live and rest in, free of charge.
Perfect Diary: Yatsen E-commerce, together with its brand Perfect Diary, donated 1 million yuan each to Wuhan Red Cross Foundation and Guangzhou Charity Federation, totaling 2 million yuan, for all novel coronavirus-related material procurement and medical support, fully supporting medical workers fighting on the frontlines.
Dewu App: On January 26, announced an initial donation of 1 million yuan to Hubei Provincial Red Cross Foundation to establish the "Dewu Anti-New Pneumonia Special Aid Fund" for procuring medical materials to support epidemic prevention and control in multiple Hubei locations. On January 28, the first batch of 12,000 bottles of easy-use hand sanitizer gel worth 300,000 yuan arrived at frontline warehouses.
Wanba: Donated 1 million yuan to Hubei Provincial Charity Federation to support novel coronavirus infection epidemic response and prevention. The special epidemic prevention fund will be used to purchase masks, protective suits, disinfectant, protective goggles, and other urgently needed medical materials and equipment for affected areas.
Yiou: Donated 500,000 yuan through Wuhan Charity Federation to support the fight against novel coronavirus pneumonia.
Beikang: Urgently coordinated a batch of 6,000 compliant medical N95 masks worth 100,000 yuan for定向 donation to Tongji Hospital Affiliated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology Medical School.
Finally, we salute the medical workers on the frontlines of this battle and every worker holding their post. Today marks the beginning of spring — winter will end, spring will come. Wishing everyone safety and health!
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