Chinese Dental Conglomerate 360MeiYa is Undervalued by Wall Street

​China’s booming economy is strutted by a supportive entrepreneurial environment, as the GDP growth rate thrived at a stunning 6.5 percent in 2017. Gordon Wu, founder and chief executive of the Chinese O2O online dental service company 360MeiYa, 360 Dental Technology, is carving out a new market and expects to help 1.3 billion Chinese citizens raise their dental hygiene awareness.

Gordon arrived early in Chicago on Feb. 8, 2018, preparing for the upcoming Chicago Dental Show. In a short interview, he says, “China is not the only market for us. Everyone deserves a second chance to afford a glowing smile. We look forward to branching out to the North American and European market.”

Inspired in part by the awful experience of getting dental service in China, Gordon combined western dental service with Chinese consumer behavior, eventually launching a real-time online consulting platform that sells multiple dental services.

360 Dental Technology is an O2O dental platform, but what differentiates 360MeiYa from other O2O platforms is that it has its own sales channel, R&D department, manufacturing facilities, and high-end dental clinic chain. It cuts out all the middlemen and offers dental services to consumers for only one-third of those of the market price. It became an overnight sensation in China. The charitable and innovative marketing branding strategy also grabs teenagers’ attention.

In December 2017, the company’s new business model was given an award by ChinaStarNews. Among the companies given awards from ChinaStarNews are VIPKID, Tesla, Huawei, and Prudential. Many investors awe at how fast the company has progressed since it was first established by Gordon in August 2017. Competitors in China have tried to copycat the same type of business model, but none yet has quite gotten close.

Gordon moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was 14. His dad was a dentist in China. Gordon was often told how expensive the dental services are over there, and how dentists often raised the price of the service during the treatment. With the caring heart to find a solution, Gordon had read many economic and marketing books, comparing the western business model to the progressive Chinese economy.

Gordon was very talented in marketing during his four years at DePaul University. He led groups in multiple marketing projects and had won many marketing awards outside the school. After his graduation, he soon was offered higher marketing position by big companies such as Sirona and Ferrari. Interestingly, Gordon chose an American-based Chinese dental factory instead. “I want to fully understand and gain more knowledge of the dental system in China. If the system can be reshaped just by a bit, hundreds of millions of people will benefit.”

After Gordon found out that O2O business model has been popular in China, and an emergence of a rising expenditure in the dental industry, he soon went to China after a year of working at the factory and started the first and only dental platform 360MieYa. It has been only 8 months since he founded 360MeiYa, and he came back to the U.S. once again to globalize the brand.

The company currently offers 10% of the equity for 32 million Yuan in the first round of capital raising, with a focus of further expansion in China. That quotes the value of 360meiya as 320 million Yuan, which is equivalent of 45 million U.S. dollars. 

Risk management manager at PingAn Financial, YiHui Liu, thinks the company is certainly undervalued looking at the tremendous growth of the health industry in China. "Over the last couple of years, the consumer expenditure in dental service has grown over 25% comparing to two years ago, whereas America has only a 2-3% increase.

"The market is huge due to the massive population, and O2O companies (360meiya) have growing potential in China," said YiHui.

Similar companies like Arrail Dental successfully raised 90 million dollars in its 5th round of funding in 2017. With a vertically integrated system and a fast online platform, 360meiya can be the next conglomerate that dominates the future Chinese dental market.