The social network is getting $100 million in funding from Australian Financial Services Group to help its growing user base, including $10 million from AFSG and $10.5 million from NAB.
The funding comes in response to the company’s ongoing growth, with users signing up for social media accounts to connect with one another.
It also comes after the company was granted a $50 million licence to develop its own digital business, following its acquisition of LinkedIn, which it had hoped would help it to grow its user base.
The AFSGS and NAB funded the project to help social medical grow its online footprint.
“Social-medicine is in a very exciting place right now, but we need more resources to support the growth,” AFSGV chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said.
“In Australia, social medicine is facing an unprecedented demand for its services and a shortage of its services.”
Social medics have already seen a surge in demand for their services in the wake of the Ebola outbreak, with the number of people seeking help rising by 200 per cent in the first five months of this year.
In addition, patients have begun to self-medicate with prescription drugs to help combat the virus.
In response, the government announced it was increasing its spending on health and social care, which is expected to boost the health budget by $5 billion.
Social media also has become a lucrative way to promote the industry, with more than $US2.5 billion being spent on social media marketing last year, according to industry figures.
Dr Peter McGovern from the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Research at ANU said the social-medics business needed to develop an identity that matched the business’s identity.
“The social-health business needs to take a risk and take risks that aren’t just going to generate revenue,” he said.
“[It] needs to be a real social business, it needs to grow.”
And the more that people know about social medicine, the more they’re going to use social medicine as a real resource for their health.
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