With 50% of the global population as target customers, a market potential of $50-billion by 2025 spurred by almost $1-billion in funding over the last three years, and a positive regulatory environment, female technology (femtech) is emerging as the next big disruptor in the global healthcare market.
This is according to Frost & Sullivan, which describes femtech as software, diagnostics, products, and services that use digital technology to improve women’s health.
Frost & Sullivan identified the following insights on women’s economic power and customer behaviour:
* 90% of women are primary healthcare decision makers for their family and key influencers for friends;
80% of the household healthcare spending is done by women. Working-age females spend 29% more per capita on healthcare compared to males in the same age group;
50% of global healthcare customers are women and they are the primary care givers for the elderly and children;
66% of women internet users look online for healthcare information. Women are 75% more likely to use digital tools for healthcare than men;
80% of healthcare professionals are women. Most are nurses, and more than 40% are in executive or managerial positions; and
4% of CEOs and 21% of Board Members at Fortune 500 Healthcare companies are women and this is expected to increase.
Women’s health is often side-lined as a niche market; however, tides are changing and this can be attributed to the rise of the ‘she-economy’, where women are not only playing an increasingly influential role across the healthcare continuum, but also have higher purchasing power,” says Shruthi Parakkal Frost & Sullivan’s transformational health senior research analyst. “For instance, the economic contribution of women is expected to outpace the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of China and the US by 2020.”
In addition, the increasingly influential role of women across the healthcare continuum as consumers, decision-makers, healthcare professionals and caregivers, is pushing healthcare companies to actively develop specialised, interactive digital applications for women’s health. The Femtech market currently has an interesting mix of market participants including specialised femtech companies that are offering interactive digital health applications for women’s health.
“Femtech is not limited to a product or a service, it is an end-to-end solution that can positively impact women’s health and wellbeing,” adds Parakkal. “Femtech applications target reproductive, maternal and general women’s health and wellness, including mental health issues, elderly care, and chronic diseases and communicable diseases.”
“Personalised wellness and consumer healthcare technology has been a top-five investment area in digital health for several years now,” says Paljit Sohal, Frost & Sullivan’s transformational health principal consultant. “It will also play a key role in making care more accessible and affordable to women across the globe with its ease of scalability, which will enable it to expand the user base without compromising on performance.”