AOI Gene: Breaking Through The Consumer Gene Testing Market

Due to the maturity of chip technology and the sharp decrease of product cost, consumer gene detection has come into public view in recent years.

It is understood that China's consumer gene testing market has sprouted as early as 2008, but high prices are not conducive to the market for products. Until 2015, 23 Rubik's cube and other companies based on chip technology products came out, the product price dropped to about 1000 yuan, and the Chinese market was gradually opened. The development of these companies has also been helped by venture capital.

In recent years, the price of consumer genetic testing products is still falling, attracting more users to buy. According to the white paper on consumer gene testing industry (2019), the cumulative number of consumer gene users in China will reach 2.207 million in 2019. Among them, the penetration rate of first tier and new first tier cities is about 1.1%.

Compared with the U.S. market, the scale of consumer gene testing users reached 26.5 million in 2019, and the penetration rate reached 8.1%. As a result, iResearch predicts that by 2022, the cumulative number of consumer gene testing users in China will reach 20.7 million, mainly due to the increase of penetration rate.

In such a market with huge growth potential, there are more than 100 enterprises engaged in consumer gene testing business. AOI gene is one of the rising stars. The company was founded in April 2018. At present, it has three business sectors: 2C gene detection service, 2b overall solution, scientific research and technical service. How can we break through the competition of homogenization?

Targeting problem driven user groups

In the year of 2018, Mr. Wu and Mr. antry, CEO of the company, have reported on the US market for gene testing in the 21st century. As a result of these companies' Education in the market and the decline in the cost of their products, nearly 20 million users in the U.S. market have used genetic testing products.

The Chinese market is at an earlier stage, with some start-ups growing, with only a few hundred thousand users as a whole. "On the one hand, China's consumer gene testing market penetration was relatively low at that time. On the other hand, in the minds of end consumers, there are few consumer gene testing companies with greater brand influence. " Wu Jian said.

As a result, he founded the self gene at that time. Wu Jian disclosed that the company had also conducted financing in the early stage of its development, but it did not make any public announcement. The future financing will be promoted according to the needs of the company's business development. "We are still relatively low-key in financing, and we hope to concentrate on doing business well." He said.

Compared with other competitors, the direction of our gene is different. Wu Jian said that many companies' genetic testing products are large and comprehensive, and the target users are interest driven. They buy products to understand the unknown themselves.

However, our products are aimed at problem driven users, mainly for family members, mainly for mothers and women groups. These users face some personalized problems in parenting or their personal life. For example, for mothers, if their children are different from other children in allergy, height, immunity, appetite and other aspects during their growth, they can understand the scientific principles behind them through genetic testing and obtain corresponding solutions.

By selecting problem driven users instead of interest driven users, we have cut into the relatively more demanding user groups, which also makes the company's business more resilient during this year's epidemic. At the same time, at the beginning of this year, we also developed gene testing products for adults and children's immunity, which achieved good sales results in February and March.

In addition to products related to children, aigene also has female skin testing products, household HPV testing products, adult chronic disease risk testing products, etc., to meet the needs of different family members. "So we define ourselves as more serious consumer genetic testing products." Wu Jian said.

At the same time, we also have R & D and product reserve in clinical diagnosis products, including nutrition diagnosis products for pregnant women, etc., and has carried out project cooperation with some professional hospitals.

Building diversified user sources

At the user level, AOI gene has obtained a large number of C-end consumers through online channels such as tmall and Jingdong, as well as offline channels such as xiaoerwang. At the same time, we also get some samples and income from enterprises, government and scientific research.

"Our C-end users and revenue have dropped from the original absolute maximum to the current relative maximum. The company's users and revenue sources are becoming more and more diversified. " Wu Jian said.

For example, at the enterprise side, we are cooperating with six of the top ten Milk Powder Companies in China. The typical cooperation mode is that the milk powder company will provide the testing products of Aiji gene to the users, so as to identify whether the children have the risk of milk protein allergy and lactose intolerance, and then recommend the appropriate milk powder products to the users according to the risk report.

"Most of our users are maternal and infant users, and the team has done a lot of basic work and early user accumulation in the evaluation of children's nutrition absorption and allergy risk. Therefore, we can provide users with relatively accurate test results and obtain the trust of milk powder companies. " Wu Jian said. At the government's side, we help local governments to screen for chronic diseases in the middle-aged and the elderly. On the scientific research side, we also cooperate with hospitals to carry out scientific research projects.

Although gene testing has been widely used in the market, some users still doubt its accuracy.

In this regard, Wu Jian explained that at present, there is no unified technical standard reference in the accuracy of consumer grade gene testing. The testing methods and databases of different companies are different, which may lead to some differences in test results. In addition, from the perspective of users, health status is not only related to genes, but also related to living environment and personal habits. So many adults will feel inaccurate after using the product.

Consumer gene testing products are more likely to predict the risk of susceptibility. For example, some people have poor absorption and metabolism ability due to some factors, resulting in abnormal height development. If we talk about it again after adulthood, it will be of little significance. However, if genetic testing is carried out when children are young, parents can intervene in nutrition, sleep, exercise and other aspects in advance to help children have a more healthy growth process.

At the same time, in order to ensure the accuracy of detection, first of all, the company has completed nearly one million person times of detection, and the team will continue to optimize the algorithm with the help of large sample size. Second, in terms of technology, the company has passed the national three-level guarantee (s3a3g3), obtained ISO27001 information security management system certification, iso29151 personal information security management system certification and many other official certifications, striving to protect the security of data assets. The company hopes that through high-quality products and strict and standardized testing process, consumers can establish a sense of trust in the products and the company.

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