Telstra Health – making inroads in digital health

Telstra Health products

Australia’s annual spend on health exceeds A$185 billion and represents around 10% of GDP and is growing too fast. Australian health tech companies are well-positioned to scale their businesses to deliver productivity improvements to the health care system in Australia. Globally, tech giants such as Google and Apple are undertaking research and developing consumer facing apps and software that will in their view revolutionise health – by putting greater control in the hands of consumers than ever before. It is therefore only a matter of time before these tech giants make inroads into the Australian digital health space. Within Australia, Telstra Health is well positioned to capture the growth in the digital health space but Venture Insights questions the ongoing fit of Telstra Health with Telstra’s broader business and whether the business would be better placed in the hands of PE, a specialised IT company or a global healthtech platform. For a more detailed look at the Australian digital health market and Telstra Health, click through to read our report.

UBS Australasia Conference 2019

UBS held its annual Australasia investors conference over 18th and 19th November in Sydney, with a number of interesting panels across the two days. Venture Insights moderated the Cyber Security panel and attended a number of interesting sessions over the two days. There were sessions on a variety of topical themes that included – China: trade, tech and capital flows, Artificial Intelligence, Clean Energy policy settings, Robotics, Autonomous vehicles, Cyber threat to Australian businesses, the limitations of monetary policy, cell and gene therapy, digital healthcare, sustainability trends, millennials, fintech investment trends and how tech giants are dealing with the techlash. Talent and skilled workforce shortages remained a universal theme across all four sessions. Almost all the panellists across the sessions agreed that finding the right talent remains a massive challenge and that there’s aren’t enough STEM graduates coming through the system. Click through to read the key takeaways from the AI, cyber security, digital health and fintech investment trends sessions.

ACCC to probe Google Fitbit deal

Total Australian advertising expenditure (%)

The ACCC has flagged concerns around Google’s acquisition of Fitbit over a potential threat to user privacy. ACCC Chairman said that the change in data collection policies, when a company like Fitbit transfers its data to Google, creates a very uncertain world for consumers who shared very personal information about their health to Fitbit under a certain set of privacy terms. While Google has committed to using Fitbit’s health and fitness data to serve advertising, the ACCC Chairman noted that Google has gone back on similar promises made in the past while acquiring companies like DoubleClick. The ACCC’s latest move is in-line with its proposed actions recommended in the final report of the Digital Platforms Inquiry earlier this year. This move is also in-line with concerns from other regulators across the globe on the Google Fitbit deal and concerns around data privacy. For a more detailed look at some of the key recommendations in the ACCC’s final report on the Digital Platforms Inquiry, click through to read our report.

Disney+ launch

Selected SVOD retail prices in the US, $ per month

The already crowded SVOD market in Australia got a bit more crowded with the launch of Disney+ in Australia. The arrival of Disney in the streaming space means that both Stan and Foxtel lose access to almost all of Disney’s popular content catalogue. In an attempt to counter, Stan has announced a bunch of new original programming while Foxtel has announced a new content partnership with NBC-Universal. Both Disney+ and Apple TV+ (Apple’s streaming service) are expected to prioritise reach over revenues as is evident from their significantly cheaper pricing compared to the incumbents. For a more detailed look at the launch strategies of the new entrants in the SVOD market, click through to read a report from our UK research partner, Enders Analysis.