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Online Doctors and Counting Steps: Top 5 Chinese Health & Fitness Apps

These are the popular health & fitness apps used by Chinese netizens.

Gabi Verberg

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As China’s fitness market is seeing rapid growth, these are some of the health & fitness apps that are popular among Chinese mobile users.

Ttracking psychical activities and sharing them with friends on social media is something that has become more popular in China, with other types of apps in the health and fitness categories also gaining in popularity.

In a series of five articles, What’s on Weibo is providing some insights into what apps are currently popular in mainland China. After the categories news apps, mobile gaming, and short video & livestreaming, we will now highlight some of the more popular apps in the category of health and fitness.

We made our selection based on the data from the Android app stores Tencent, Baidu, Huawei, and Zhushou360. We tried our best to give you a representative overview of a variety of apps that are currently most used in China, but want to remind you that these lists are by no official “top 5” charts.

Here we go!

 

#1 Keep 自由运动场

Keep (literally: Free Sportsground 自由运动场) is currently the most popular health and fitness app in the Chinese Apple store. Keep first appeared in 2015, and has since grown to become the country’s biggest online sports community. Following their success, Keep has also expanded its businesses outside of the online world and now have their own KeepLand Gyms.

Keep is a very all-round app. When first using the app, users have to answer a number of questions concerning their health, age, motivation to exercise, level of experience, and preferred sports. Once the user has answered all the required questions, the app is ready for use.

The app’s main page is called ‘workout’ and is divided into different workout categories. Per category, the user can find many different exercises, including (video) explanations and duration of the workout sessions. For certain endurance sports such as running and cycling, the app will also track the user’s route and speed.

Based on the measured activity, the app will recommend new exercises. Besides workouts, there are also classes you can follow and challenges to take on.

But becoming healthier takes more than exercising alone. Therefore, the app also incorporated a food page, providing its users with diet advice, recipes, and calorie info.

The app also has its own shop selling sports clothes and attributes, food supplements, and other trendy merchandise. For those who share their personal results on social media platforms, such as WeChat, get discounts in the app’s webshop.

Last but not least, the app also has a ‘community space’ where users can share their experiences and find support.

 

#2 Meet You 美柚月经期助手

Meet You is the English name of this app, that is literally called ‘Beautiful Pomelo Menstruation Tracker’ (美柚月经期助手), with the pomelo being a fruit that symbolizes prosperity, good luck, and positivity. The app is a multifunctional period tracker for all women but is mainly focused on women who are trying to get pregnant, who are pregnant, or who already have children. Meet You promotes its app as a way to “make Chinese women even more beautiful and healthier.”

The most important page of Meet You is the personal main page. On this page, users can keep a record of their menstruation cycle, their day-to-day mood, weight, possible illnesses, bowel movements, use of anticonception, eating habits, etc.

Based on all this data, the app will analyze their current state of health, and recommend certain news articles and other reads that match the user’s preferences.

Additionally, users can also share their experiences and knowledge through the in-app ‘communities.’ The app has a number of communities focused on specific topics, such as Make-up Time, Love To Travel and Skin Care Beauty Salon.

Of course, there is also a shopping page, which, without doubt, is an important part of the app’s revenue model.

Meet You was first launched in 2013 by the Meiyou Information Technology Company, based in Xiamen. Throughout the years, the company launched several other apps all focused on women. Currently, Meet You has over 200 million users, of which 7 million were daily active users according to their own website. And according to a report by Jiguang, Meet You was the second most favored app among female mobile users in 2018.

 

#3 Qin Baobao 亲宝宝

Qin Baobao is an app to provide childcare information for pregnant woman and families with children up to the age of six. The app was first launched in 2013 by Hangzhou Xingwang Technology. Five years later, in 2018, the app had succeeded in reaching more than 100 million registered users, according to the company’s website.

In March 2019, the app was the third most popular app in the category Health and Fitness in the Chinese Apple Stores.

Qin Baobao is mainly focused on using technology to help families to better care for their young children. The app’s functions can be divided roughly into two parts. One part is focused on the improvement of children’s health and general well-being, and the other part is about recording the child’s development and sharing joyful moments with friends and family.

To help parents in taking care of their young children, the app provides functions such as soothing music and a knowledge database of age-appropriate foods.

There are also recipes for baby food, tips on how to make your child eat well, advice on what to do when your child is sick, and a Q&A forum.

The other part is all about documenting the growth of the child. Through texts, pictures, and videos, the precious first years of a child’s life can be safely stored and shared with friends and family.

What makes the app more attractive than other social media, according to the company’s statement, is that the app respects its users’ privacy and allegedly won’t be using the uploaded data for other purposes.

  

#4 Ping An Good Doctor 平安好医生

Ping An Good Doctor is a health care and medical consultation platform and part of the Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company.

Ping An Good Doctor was launched in 2015 and has become more popular since. In 2018, the number of registered users reached 265 million, of which nearly 54.7 million were monthly active users, according to their own website.

The app is a portal for medical consultation, something which is not easily available to everyone in China. The app provides four types of services: the family doctor, the consultation hall, medical bibliography of the doctors, and a ‘health community.’

The so-called family doctor service provides a one-on-one, private, real-time (paid) consultation between a user and a doctor. Online ‘patients’ can also talk to doctors in the ‘consultation hall,’ but this service is not private nor one-on-one.

The app certainly cannot replace an actual doctor’s appointment; not only does the virtual environment make it impossible to do a physical checkup, but the doctors also can not give any prescriptions to their ‘patients.’ The app does allow users to make an appointment with a doctor at an actual hospital through its appointment booking service.

Besides the medical consultation functions, the app also includes a catalog of China’s top-notch doctors. Through the app, users can request (offline) consultation or other services from these doctors. The compiled list of doctors is also a way to get insight into the different specialisms of different hospitals and doctors throughout the country.

The last feature of the app is the health community. In this area, all users can read articles about how to keep healthy, how to treat diseases, etc.

To provide all of these services, Ping An Good Doctor allegedly employed 1196 medical personnel in its in-house medical team, signed contracts with an additional 5,203 renowned external doctors, and partnered with over 3000 hospitals and over 15.000 pharmacies by the end of 2018.

 

#5 Yodo Run 悦动圈

The final app in this list is Yodo Run by the Shenzhen-based Rejoice Sports Tech Company. Yodo Run is one of China’s leading social health and fitness recording apps that strives to stimulate users to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Through Yodo Run‘s advanced automatic step counting and GPS algorithm, the app can record various exercise patterns such as walking, running, fitness, and cycling. This way, users can keep track of their day-to-day movements. But that is not all that the app provides. The app also includes exercise schedules, video tutorials and a list of music.

To make sure people keep using the app, Yodo Run gives away tens of thousands of money packages every day. There are awards for reaching small goals, such as making 500 steps on your first day as an app user. But there are also awards that are more difficult to earn, such as long-term goals or when you partake in competitions or challenges.

But for those who are not using the app as a way to earn something extra, the app found another way to stimulates its users to exercise. And this is where Yodo Run differentiates itself with many other sports apps.

Yodo Run has a strong focus on bringing people together to exercise. To enable this, Yodo Run has the right tools to actively stimulate people to go out and meet others with a shared passion for exercising. According to their own website, the app has enabled people to unite in more than 500,000 “sports groups”, of which 10,000 are actual real-time running groups, spread over more than 300 cities worldwide.

The app is available in both Chinese and English.

Also see:

By Gabi Verberg, edited by Manya Koetse

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us.

©2019 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com

Gabi Verberg is a Business graduate from the University of Amsterdam who has worked and studied in Shanghai and Beijing. She now lives in Amsterdam and works as a part-time translator, with a particular interest in Chinese modern culture and politics.

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Tick, Tock, Time to Pay Up? Douyin Is Testing Out Paywalled Short Videos

Is content payment a new beginning for the popular short video app Douyin (China’s TikTok) or would it be the end?

Manya Koetse

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The introduction of a Douyin novel feature, that would enable content creators to impose a fee for accessing their short video content, has sparked discussions across Chinese social media. Although the feature would benefit creators, many Douyin users are skeptical.

News that Chinese social media app Douyin is rolling out a new feature which allows creators to introduce a paywall for their short video content has triggered online discussions in China this week.

The feature, which made headlines on November 16, is presently in the testing phase. A number of influential content creators are now allowed to ‘paywall’ part of their video content.

Douyin is the hugely popular app by Chinese tech giant Bytedance. TikTok is the international version of the Chinese successful short video app, and although they’re often presented as being the same product, Douyin and Tiktok are actually two separate entities.

In addition to variations in content management and general usage, Douyin differs from TikTok in terms of features. Douyin previously experimented with functionalities such as charging users for accessing mini-dramas on the platform or the ability to tip content creators.

The pay-to-view feature on Douyin would require users to pay a certain fee in Douyin coins (抖币) in order to view paywalled content. One Douyin coin is equivalent to 0.1 yuan ($0,014). The platform itself takes 30% of the income as a service charge.

According to China Securities Times or STCN (证券时报网), Douyin insiders said that any short video content meeting Douyin’s requirements could be set as “pay-per-view.”

Creators, who can set their own paywall prices, should reportedly meet three criteria to qualify for the pay-to-view feature: their account cannot have any violation records for a period of 90 days, they should have at least 100,000 followers, and they have to have completed the real-name authentication process.

On Douyin and Weibo, Chinese netizens express various views on the feature. Many people do not think it would be a good idea to charge money for short videos. One video blogger (@小片片说大片) pointed out the existing challenge of persuading netizens to pay for longer videos, let alone expecting them to pay for shorter ones.

“The moment I’d need to pay money for it, I’ll delete the app,” some commenters write.

This statement appears to capture the prevailing sentiment among most internet users regarding a subscription-based Douyin environment. According to a survey conducted by the media platform Pear Video, more than 93% of respondents expressed they would not be willing to pay for short videos.

An online poll by Pear Video showed that the majority of respondents would not be willing to pay for short videos on Douyin.

“This could be a breaking point for Douyin,” one person predicts: “Other platforms could replace it.” There are more people who think it would be the end of Douyin and that other (free) short video platforms might take its place.

Some commenters, however, had their own reasons for supporting a pay-per-view function on the platform, suggesting it would help them solve their Douyin addiction. One commenter remarked, “Fantastic, this might finally help me break free from watching short videos!” Another individual responded, “Perhaps this could serve as a remedy for my procrastination.”

As discussions about the new feature trended, Douyin’s customer service responded, stating that it would eventually be up to content creators whether or not they want to activate the paid feature for their videos, and that it would be up to users whether or not they would be interested in such content – otherwise they can just swipe away.

Another social media user wrote: “There’s only one kind of video I’m willing to pay for, and it’s not on Douyin.”

By Manya Koetse

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©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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China Digital

Too Sexy for Weibo? Online Discussions on the Concept of ‘Cābiān’

Delving into the ongoing discussion on ‘cābiān’ and its influence on women’s expression in China’s digital realm.

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Chinese social media is seeing more discussions recenty on the blurred boundaries of Cābiān. This seemingly never-ending discussion raises questions – not just about sexually suggestive content, but also about the evolving perceptions of women’s bodies and freedom in the digital age.

In the fast-moving world of China’s internet, a new term has emerged: Cābiān (擦边). Originally a sports term describing a ball grazing the edge of a table (擦边球), it now primarily refers to the delicate balance in content that may be seen as sexually suggestive, teetering on the line between ‘sexy’ and ‘sexually explicit’ in the context of China’s internet culture.

The term mainly refers to women’s behavior, style, language, and actions that are considered inappropriate or that are pushing the boundaries of acceptability. Cābiān can be understood as borderline sexual content that basically navigates the boundaries of platform rules without actually breaking them. Nevertheless, is generally seen as ‘not in line’ with what is expected of Chinese women in today’s society.

This term has sparked controversy recently, prompting fervent debates surrounding its implications for women’s self-expression.

 
Too Sexy for Weibo? Jingchuan Liyu’s Divisive Pictures
 

Social media plays a central role in the “cābiān” debate. A recent example involves a Weibo post by Jingchuan Liyu (井川里予, @悲伤荷包蛋), a prominent Chinese influencer active on Weibo and Xiaohongshu.

Jingchuan Liyu is known for embodying both innocence and sensuality in her online persona. Mainly by male netizens, she has been labeled as a symbol of “chúnyù” (纯欲). This term signifies a blend of childlike innocence (纯洁, chúnjié) and allure (欲望, yùwàng).

Jingchuan Liyu became a focal point in the cābiān debate when she posted a series of photos during the summer of this year. While these photos didn’t violate any official guidelines, they departed from her typical “innocent yet sexy” style. In these pictures, she was seen wearing thongs and other undergarments, which apparently made some social media users uneasy.

The controversy surrounding the photos intensified when Jingchuan Liyu responded to these criticisms on her Weibo page. While her supporters defended her freedom to dress as she pleases, others viewed her photos as being more about provocative sexual suggestion than about freedom of fashion.

 
Dog-Headed Lolita: Judged, Harassed, and Labeled Cābiān
 

Beyond online debates, the condemnation of “cābiān” is also having real-world consequences. One recent example is the case of the Chinese influencer known as Dog-Head Lolita (狗头萝莉 @我是狗头萝莉).

Despite having a problematic childhood, ‘Dog-Head Lolita’ managed to turn her life around and became a successful streamer. But her reputation suffered a severe blow when explicit videos of her, recorded by her ex-boyfriend, were made public.

This incident and its aftermath damaged her career and, partly due to getting cheated by her manager, was left with a staggering debt of 6 million RMB ($836K). Trying to start an alternative career, Dog-Head Lolita took up selling Chinese pancakes (jiānbǐng 煎饼) at a street stall as a means to make a living and work towards repaying her debts.

In addition to her physical labor, she also posted short videos of herself selling pancakes online and continued to livestream and engage with her followers to generate more income.

While her efforts garnered sympathy and admiration from some netizens, she also faced accusations of using her pancake-selling business as a form of cābiān.

Her choice of attire, which emphasized her figure, became a central topic of discussion. Some netizens raised questions about whether her videos, showcasing her interactions with fans while selling pancakes, carried a sexual undertone. Moreover, there were arguments suggesting that her true business wasn’t selling pancakes but rather producing sexually suggestive content.

Some critics of Dog-Head Lolita went further and turned online criticism into harassment. Some filed reports regarding the hygiene conditions of her business, while others intentionally vandalized her pancake cart and left insulting messages on it.

Facing this harassment linked to accusations of being cābiān, Dog-Head Lolita voiced her frustration on her Weibo page.

She emphasized that her physique was something beyond her control and that selling pancakes shouldn’t be judged in the same way as her previous online presence. She complained that her livelihood was being scrutinized, even in the most ordinary and innocuous settings.

 
Challenging the Concept of Cābiān
 

Defining the precise boundaries of what is and is not cābiān is not easy, as it has become a catch-all term for anything remotely sexually suggestive, erotic, or resembling “soft pornography.”

While the distinction between suggestive and non-suggestive content remains hazy, new voices have emerged to challenge the very idea of “cābiān.”

Some believe that cābiān is a societal construct imposed on women, rather than an intrinsic concept. They argue that before the term “cābiān” gained popularity, suggestive pelvic dances were widespread in China due to the prevalence of K-pop boy groups, and male celebrities could appear shirtless and flirtatious on TV without anyone accusing them of “cābiān.”

But when it comes to women, the standards of cābiān can be unclear and are often unforgiving. This term is used not only to regulate their clothing choices but also their behavior or even facial expressions—essentially, anything a woman might do.

Once a female online influencer is seen as attractive and desireable, she seemingly becomes more prone to be labeled a “cābiān nǚ” (擦边女) – a woman who is seen as flaunting her sensuality within the context of social media and online platforms.

If this trend of labeling people as sexually suggestive continues, “cābiān” might turn into an unclear social rule, resulting in ongoing moral judgments of women, especially female online influencers.

On the other hand, some netizens see the increasing acceptance of women displaying their bodies in a sensual manner as a form of female empowerment.

One notable Weibo by ‘Wang’ede’ (@王饿德) post that gained a lot of attention suggested that there is a distinction between how others interpret women’s bodies and how women themselves perceive it. The post asserts that revealing skin and wearing “sexy” clothing can be a proactive expression of women’s own desires and confidence rather than solely meaning to please a male audience.

This active pursuit is seen as a form of ‘decolonization’ of the traditional patriarchal gaze— it’s described as “a reevaluation of women’s bodies by women themselves that allows us to reclaim ownership of our bodies,” as stated by the author of the post.

 
Neverending Discussions
 

As the debates continue, Weibo users are noticing a deadlock in these online discussions. Conversations about the who, what, and why of cābiān are recurring and appear to be never-ending.

In 2019, a significant debate arose concerning the attire worn by actress Rayzha Alimjan. In 2022, controversies revolved around busty women. There was also a cyberbullying incident involving a mother who had recently lost her son in a car accident and faced criticism for wearing elegant clothing and makeup (read). Most recently, there has been a series of new discussions, ranging from criticizing the latest TV drama starring singer/actress Lai Meiyun and onwards.

Contemplating this phenomenon, some internet users are thinking about the evolution of Jingchuan Liyu’s style. A decade or two ago, her aesthetic might have been categorized as ’emo,’ ‘alternative,’ or just seen as a form of decadent beauty. However, nowadays, it is quickly subjected to examination to determine whether or not it falls into the category of cābiān.

In the eyes of many Chinese netizens, this trend is seen as a discouraging step backward. Influential bloggers repost their previous cābiān-related Weibo posts from years or even just months ago, highlighting the seemingly futile nature of these discussions.

Who will be the next woman to be branded as cābiān? Will she face online insults and offline harassment? On Weibo, some express their exhaustion at being stuck in this repetitive loop, engaging in similar debates time and time again.

Perhaps it is time to reevaluate the term “cābiān” and engage in more meaningful discussions about women’s bodies and their freedom in China. As one netizen put it on Weibo: “Maybe we should redirect this energy toward discussions that genuinely promote progress instead of endlessly revisiting these cyclic debates.”

By Ruixin Zhang

edited for clarity by Zilan Qian & Manya Koetse

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

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©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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