Methodology
Research process
Five parallel research passes (Western aesthetics platforms · Asian aesthetics platforms · medical-tourism aggregators · procedure volumes · prices & market sizes; salon/spa booking platforms were researched, then excluded by scope) across ~220 sources, June 11, 2026. The ten most load-bearing claims were then adversarially re-verified with independent searches; corrections were applied (So-Young market cap corrected to ~$250–290M; Practo IPO timing moved to 2027; Gangnam Unni's reported ~$420M valuation flagged unverified; RealSelf's 'Zocdoc for aesthetics' framing identified as press shorthand, not company positioning).
Portal rankings
- Revenue: company filings/results where they exist (So-Young SEC filings, Korean DART-derived press for Gangnam Unni/Babitalk/Yeoshin, Practo company reports). RealSelf, WhatClinic and Zocdoc rest on third-party estimates — confidence is marked Low and bars are gray.
- Traffic: Similarweb/Semrush public snapshots (2024–2026, dates per cell). Web traffic is a poor proxy for app-led platforms; treat as indicative for cross-web comparisons only.
- Scope: medical aesthetics & cosmetic dermatology only — actual doctors and medical/cosmetic procedures. Salon, spa and beauty-booking platforms (Fresha, Booksy, Treatwell, Urban Company, etc.) were researched but excluded per the requested scope. Moxie (B2B medspa infrastructure) and pharma loyalty networks (Allē, ASPIRE, Evolus, Xperience+) are labeled context, not marketplaces.
Procedure GMV = volume × price
- Volumes: ISAPS Global Survey 2024 (published June 19, 2025) — extrapolation to ~58,500 board-certified plastic surgeons from 2,975 respondents. Verified against the official PDF. ISAPS itself cautions the doubled respondent base affects 2023→2024 comparability (botox −17.4%, breast augmentation −17.5% are partly methodological). Hair transplant: ISHRS 2022 census worldwide extrapolation (703,183, 2021) — journalistic estimates put Turkey alone above 1M/yr, so this is a known undercount.
- Prices: RealSelf patient-reported all-in US averages (each cost page fetched live, June 2026); ASPS published averages where RealSelf lacks a page (ASPS figures are surgeon-fee-only and ~40–65% below all-in). Basis and vintage shown per row.
- Known biases: plastic-surgeon-only volumes understate (especially injectables, lasers, hair removal — medspa territory: AmSpa counts 10,488 US medspas, $17B+ revenue); US prices overstate global averages. The two partially offset; the column "Independent market $" gives the external anchor. Totals: our covered-procedure GMV is $156B vs Grand View's global cosmetic-surgery-and-procedures estimate of $83B (2024) and "aesthetic medicine" at $98.8B (2025) — consistent with US-price upper-bound framing.
Currency conversions
RMB 7.0/USD (So-Young uses its own SEC conversion), KRW 1,400/USD, INR 85/USD, JPY 153/USD, GBP 0.79/USD, EUR 0.92/USD — rounded, June 2026 vicinity.
Key caveats
- Anything marked LOW CONFIDENCE or gray should not be quoted without re-verification.
- Treatwell traffic covers the UK domain only (group operates ~13 country domains).
- StyleSeat/Squire/Booksy "GMV" figures are cumulative or platform-defined "transaction value" — definitions differ by company.
- Zocdoc and Practo are whole-company figures; their dermatology/aesthetics share is not disclosed.