HealthcareMagic

HealthcareMagic
Type of business Private
Type of site
 Electronic Commerce, Question and Answer (Q&A) Site
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Kunal Sinha,[1] Shekhar Sahu,[2] Nitesh Pant, Abhilash Thirupathy
Key people Kunal Sinha (CEO), Abhilash Thirupathy (Co-founder), Shekhar Sahu (Co-founder), Nitesh Pant (Co-founder)
Industry Healthcare
Employees 76
Parent Ebix Inc.[3][4]
Website www.healthcaremagic.com
Alexa rank 18258 (January 2014)[5]
Registration Required
Launched Feb 2008
Current status Active
Written in Java

HealthcareMagic is a question-and-answer website which provides answers to medical questions for a fee. A user is required to register to post a question in HealthcareMagic, paying a variable fee to receive the answer.

History

HealthcareMagic was launched in January 2008 by Kunal Sinha, Abhilash Thirupathy, Shekhar Sahu and Nitesh Pant. Kunal Sinha founded this company after he left Unified Technologies, an internet technology company based in Bangalore.[1][6] In 2009, the company collaborated with Atom Telecom to launch an IVR-based payment service.[7] The website provides answers to health queries from qualified medical practitioners registered with it from around the world. It currently gains around 1,900 new users a day and receives 4.5 million unique visits per month.[6] In September 2013 they released an App for their service on Android and iOS, named Ask a Doctor.[8]

Funding

HealthcareMagic received $2.5 million in seed funding from Accel Partners in 2009 in exchange for ~20-25% equity, separated into $0.5 million tranches.[9][10][11] HealthcareMagic was acquired by Ebix Inc. on May 27, 2014 for $18.5 million.[3][4]

Controversy

NextBigWhat author Ashish Sinha said that the company "used to flood" various forums with tons of health related content".[11] The Wall Street Journal was provided a response which was too broad during their review in 2012,[12] and The Washington Post found their answers "too broad".[13]

References

  1. 1 2 "Kunal Sinha - Profile". Crunchbase. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. ↑ "Shekhar Sahu - Profile". Crunchbase. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. 1 2 "Ebix Fueling Growth by Going Back To Its Bread and Butter". GuruFocus.com. 2014-08-15. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
  4. 1 2 "Ebix Acquires Healthcare Magic". NASDAQ.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
  5. ↑ "HealthcareMagic.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  6. 1 2 Preethi, J (2011-05-04). "Online Health Takes Off: Healthcaremagic.com Adds 1,900 Registered Users A Day". Techcircle.in. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  7. ↑ "HealthcareMagic inks alliance with Atom Telecom to launch IVR-based payment service". India Telecom. HighBeam. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2013-01-22. (subscription required)
  8. ↑ Murali, Anand (2013-09-10). "With Ask A Doctor App, the Doc Will Come to Your Smartphone". NextBigWhat. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  9. ↑ "$2.5 Million funding for HealthcareMagic". NextBigWhat. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  10. ↑ "HealthcareMagic Receives $2.5 Million from Accel. Expansion Plans". MediaNama. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  11. 1 2 "HealthCareMagic secures funding from Accel India". NextBigWhat. Retrieved January 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  12. ↑ Dizik, Alina (2012-08-06). "A Review of Telemedicine Websites". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  13. ↑ Fard, Maggie Fazeli (2013-07-30). "Beyond WebMD: Magazine Rates Services That Offer Online Access to Doctors". The Washington Post. HighBeam. Retrieved 2013-01-22. (subscription required)
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