WEIFANG, China: Charging elderly clients just 1 yuan or about 15 cents a day, little-known Lanchuang Network Technology Corp has embarked on one of the most ambitious undertakings in aged care by a private sector firm in China.
The aim, however, is not to make money from its clients, some of whom get by on pensions as low as a few hundred yuan a month, but to take a cut from providers of offline services."China's market for elderly care is huge, but services in the industry are fragmented," CEO Li Libo told Reuters in an interview at his company's headquarters in Weifang city.
"If only I had been able to reach a doctor to help my mother, but doctors are not reachable 24 hours a day," said Liu, who only gave her surname. The central government provided almost 22 million yuan in subsidies for Lanchuang's smart platform and the Shandong provincial government has given 3 million yuan.