New York University professor Scott Galloway, who correctly predicted that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) would acquire Whole Foods, now claims that the e-commerce giant could be on its way to becoming the world's fastest-growing healthcare company by 2025.
"I think you're going to see Amazon and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) going to healthcare," said Galloway, including the potential of tech giant Apple when it comes to the future of the $3.7 trillion healthcare industry. But, according to Galloway, Apple stands second behind Amazon despite its digital products.
"Amazon knows how healthy you are," Galloway pointed out. "So my prediction is by 2025, Amazon is the fastest-growing healthcare company in the world."
After acquiring online pharmacy Pillpack in 2018 for roughly $1 billion, it may come as no surprise to investors that Amazon has been getting serious about joining the ranks of healthcare industry leaders.
Last September, Amazon launched a primary-care facility for Amazon employees based in Seattle called Amazon Care. According to a spokesperson, Amazon Care aims to "help Amazon employees get fast access to healthcare without an appointment, at the convenience of their schedules, at their preferred location (home, office, or virtual). Amazon Care eliminates travel and wait time, connecting employees and their family members to a physician or nurse practitioner through live chat or video."
Launched in time for the upswell of social distancing measures intended to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus amid the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly Amazon Care offers immense potential for Amazon and its employees.
More recently, the company announced that it's investing a considerable amount of funding into developing better diagnostic test kits for COVID-19 patients, also timely considering the pandemic and Amazon's ongoing efforts to emerge into the healthcare scene.
Even a couple years ago, Amazon began investing more into this sector, seen for one with Haven, the company's joint venture with Berkshire Hathway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). While innovative on the larger front of the healthcare industry, Haven was established in 2018 primarily to help reduce healthcare costs for the companies' 1.2 million combined employees.
While Galloway included Apple in his predictions for upcoming healthcare industry leaders, he's less convinced that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) will join the ranks. While Amazon has become consumers' go-to online platform for virtual shopping, Galloway noted, he doesn't suspect that users will share as much personal information on Facebook as they do while shopping online or browsing the web. "No one's going to tell Facebook about their diabetes or STDs," he said.