The archive · Health & Care · Strategic decision · 2019–2026
Doctor Now bets Korea legalizes telemedicine; record consults, then a prevention law
Korea's #1 telemedicine app hit 1.68M consults in 2025 as the Dec 2025 law institutionalizes the market; an Aug 2026 ban blocks its drug-wholesale move.
Doctor Now (닥터나우)
What the business is
Doctor Now (닥터나우) is South Korea's largest non-face-to-face (telemedicine) platform: app-based remote consultations with partner clinics, e-prescriptions routed to nearby pharmacies, plus medicine delivery and hospital booking.
Starting capital：KRW 40B Series B in June 2022, KRW 52B cumulative at the time (Yonhap); a Series B2 closed in late 2025.
How it started
Doctor Now Inc. was founded in September 2019 in Seoul by Jang Ji-ho. The service grew through the pandemic-era telemedicine pilot that began in 2020, when the government allowed non-face-to-face treatment on an exceptional basis. Jung Jin-woong, a Morgan Stanley (Hong Kong) investment banker who had worked on the Yogiyo sale, joined in October 2022 and became sole CEO after the founder left for study and military service.
What happened
In 2025 consultations hit a record 1.68M (+110% vs 2024), with 7.5M+ cumulative downloads and 6,200+ partner institutions. On December 2, 2025 the National Assembly passed the Medical Service Act amendment institutionalizing telemedicine (promulgated December 23, set to take effect in December 2026), requiring platforms to register with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and, above a size threshold, obtain certification. Doctor Now had also pushed into pharmaceutical wholesale and medicine delivery; on August 20, 2026 the Assembly passed the 'Doctor Now Prevention Act,' a Pharmaceutical Affairs Act amendment barring telemedicine platforms from operating pharmaceutical wholesale businesses.
How it ended up
Still running and still #1, but its expansion path was clipped: the August 2026 amendment forces it out of drug wholesaling just as the institutionalized telemedicine regime (with registration and certification duties) takes effect in December 2026.
Background
Doctor Now (닥터나우), founded in September 2019 in Seoul, is South Korea's largest telemedicine platform: an app that connects patients with partner clinics for remote consultations, routes e-prescriptions to nearby pharmacies, and organizes medicine delivery and hospital booking. It grew on the COVID-era telemedicine exception that began in 2020, when the government allowed non-face-to-face treatment on a pilot basis.
The bet was that Korea would permanently legalize telemedicine and that patients would treat it as a daily healthcare option, not an emergency measure. By 2025 the platform recorded 1.68M+ consultations — up more than 110% from about 800k in 2024 and its highest annual figure ever, above even the pandemic years — with 7.5M+ cumulative app downloads and 6,200+ partner hospitals and pharmacies.
The regulatory door then opened and narrowed within a year: on December 2, 2025 the National Assembly passed the Medical Service Act amendment institutionalizing telemedicine (promulgated Dec 23, effective Dec 2026), which requires platform registration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and, above a size threshold, certification. But on August 20, 2026 the Assembly passed the 'Doctor Now Prevention Act,' a Pharmaceutical Affairs Act amendment barring telemedicine platforms from operating pharmaceutical wholesale businesses — the expansion Doctor Now had built with government approval.
As of September 2026 Doctor Now is still the market leader and still scaling, but the legalization it bet on arrived with restrictions aimed squarely at its business model, and medicine delivery for telemedicine prescriptions remains contested.
What has to be true
- The bet preceded the law: Doctor Now built the full pipeline — clinics, e-prescriptions, pharmacy network, delivery — during the COVID pilot, so legalization arrived with the winner already installed.
- The timing bet paid off: 2025's 1.68M consultations (+110% YoY) and 7.5M downloads proved telemedicine had become a routine option, not a pandemic artifact.
- The August 2026 'Doctor Now Prevention Act' shows the countermove: incumbent pharmacists used the same legislature to bar platforms from the most profitable follow-on business, drug wholesaling.
- The December 2025 law itself is double-edged: institutionalization brings registration and certification duties that raise entry barriers for smaller startups while entrenching the incumbent.
What can be applied
Winning a regulated market before the law exists puts you inside the tent, but the next rule can be written against you: a dominant pilot player can still be barred from the profitable follow-on.
Aftermath
As of Sept 2026 Doctor Now is Korea's #1 telemedicine platform: 1.68M consultations in 2025, 220k+ in January 2026, 7.5M+ downloads. The Medical Service Act amendment of December 2, 2025 institutionalizes telemedicine from December 2026, with registration and certification duties. On August 20, 2026 the 'Doctor Now Prevention Act' (Pharmaceutical Affairs Act amendment) passed, barring telemedicine platforms from drug wholesaling; Doctor Now expressed regret over a business it ran legally with government approval, but its core intermediary service continues. A Series B2 closed in late 2025.
Sources
- South Korea Telemedicine
- 닥터나우, 2025년 연간 진료건수 168만 건 기록 '역대 최대'
- 닥터나우 - 기업정보 (Doctor Now company profile)
- [2025 차세대 리더-IT·스타트업] 정진웅 닥터나우 대표
- Venture Enterprise Association Expresses Regret Over Pharmaceutical Act Revision Restricting Delivery Platforms
- 닥터나우 "400억원 규모 시리즈 B 투자 유치"
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