Doctolib makes the health system addicted to its services

The pandemic has given Doctolib a big boost. “We have succeeded in developing solutions in an emergency, whether to massively deploy teleconsultation in medical practices, screening in laboratories and, of course, vaccination”, summarizes Arthur Thirion, managing director of the French leader in online medical appointments, also present in Germany and Italy. Enough to reinforce the formidable power of the Doctolib brand, created in 2013 by four entrepreneurs – including its CEO, a graduate of HEC, Stanislas Niox-Chateau – who wanted to “revolutionize access to care”. How? ‘Or’ What? By offering to find consultation slots quickly in a few clicks.

(X. Francolon/Sipa)

It took him barely ten years to establish himself as a “health reflex” for the French. “It’s like when someone talks to you about soda, you immediately think of Coca-Cola”, resigns Matthieu Becamel, director of communication and marketing of Cegedim Santé, owner of Maiia, competitor of Doctolib, also chosen by the State as a partner in the vaccination campaign with Keldoc. Now, 60 million patients use its services and 300,000 health personnel work with its Doctolib Patient appointment software, including 100,000 new recruits in 2021. A nice revenge for the tricolor nugget, long accused of wanting to “uberize” health. “It’s probably a rearguard fight, while medical desertification is galloping and the French are even finding it more and more difficult to make an appointment with their doctor”, admits Jean-Paul Hamon, president of the Federation of Doctors of France.

Read alsoWho is Stanislas Niox-Château, the impatient CEO of Doctolib?

Leading Investors

Arrived after RDVmédicaux (now Maiia), KelDoc or MonDocteur, Doctolib was not however the pioneer of online appointments, but it very quickly rallied leading investors, with more than 230 million euros raised in five years. Including a funding round of 150 million which transformed it into a unicorn valued at more than 1 billion euros in 2019.

This rain of cash has enabled it to continuously develop innovative and efficient tools that appeal to users. “Every year, we double the size of our teams and the number of services we offer,” emphasizes Arthur Thirion. To keep pace with its hypergrowth, Doctolib (2,300 employees in 30 cities) recruits an average of 40 new employees per month. “They have a colossal strike force with which small players cannot compete,” recognizes Jean-Louis Baudet, head of KelDoc’s vaccination campaign.

As a result, his rivals had to quickly settle for crumbs or diversify. According to Salim Echoukry, founding president of Klein Blue, “when Doctolib bought out its direct competitor MonDocteur [pour un montant estimé entre 40 et 50 millions, NDLR] in 2018, that killed off the competition”. Reinforced by its raid on city surgeries, the company set off to attack hospitals and clinics. Again, it won the jackpot by signing a contract with the AP -HP in 2017. Then the AP-HM two years later… So much so that today, it has 250 public hospitals among its customers.

Management Tools

But despite a turnover estimated at around 250 million euros, drawn from practitioners’ subscriptions to its various solutions (including Doctolib Patient at 129 euros per month per practitioner, or Doctolib Teleconsultation at 79 euros per month), the steamroller Doctolib is still not profitable. And its managing director does not set a timetable for generating profits. The priority remains investment: 300 million euros planned for 2022 to “create new services”. Among them, the medical and administrative software Doctolib Médecin. “After making appointments and teleconsultation, this positioning on the practice management tools market shows that Doctolib is now targeting all stages of the care pathway”, deciphers Salim Echoukry. Follow-up of acts, invoicing, help with prescriptions… The unicorn is determined to rub shoulders with the historical players in the sector, such as Cegedim.

Enough to revive the accusations of quasi-monopoly (see box). Especially since some are annoyed to see politicians pampering Doctolib. The successive Secretaries of State for Digital, Mounir Mahjoubi then Cédric O, each reserved an official trip for him. “The executive, who wants to push the champions of French tech against Gafam, is rolling out the red carpet for him,” agrees a specialist in the sector. Still, having become almost a public service, Doctolib will have to disentangle itself from recurring debates on data security, its Achilles heel, while it hosts those of its users at Amazon Web Services. To give pledges, he has just bought Tanker, a start-up which provides cutting-edge technology to secure sensitive data. Not content with shielding itself, Doctolib presents this acquisition as a new project for the future: “Redefining medical secrecy online.” Nothing less.

A quasi-monopoly under close surveillance

Doctolib is in the sights of the Competition Authority, which searched the group’s headquarters in May 2021, following a complaint for abuse of a dominant position filed at the end of 2019. This concerns the markets for taking appointments and teleconsultation services. “The investigation is still in progress”, specifies one within the gendarme of the competition. Accusations – recurring – of a monopoly situation that sweeps Arthur Thirion, the general manager of Doctolib: “Dozens of players exist in our sector, some of which are backed by large groups and have been established for much longer than us”, advances he, saying to himself “confident, and even impatient” to know the outcome of the investigation. This is not the first time that Doctolib has suffered the wrath of its rivals. At the end of 2018, the company RDVmédicaux seized the Competition Authority to challenge the contract signed between the online appointments giant and the AP-HP in 2017, for an initial period of four years. A collaboration that still runs..

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