NetEase, one of the biggest internet portals in China has announced it is launching an insurance comparison platform http://baoxian.163.com/. It will focus on auto insurance with the cooperation with various partners such as China Ping An, Pacific Insurance and Sun Insurance. The goal is to help give insurance consumers choice and transparency when selecting the most suitable auto insurance.
In July, Swiss Re Group estimated that the Chinese insurance industry grew by 26.2% and is now the world’s sixth largest insurance market. Within 10 years it could become the second largest in the world. The NetEase Director of insurance products, Zhang Lei said that the “country’s vehicle population has increased more than thirteen hundred million, more than 100 million units, up about 15%.” It makes sense that as people become wealthier, they are looking to protect their valuable assets and will pay good money for it.
To alleviate the pain of complicated insurance jargon, the platform will aim to make the process easy to understand and buy. Each insurance company will have their customer service plugged into it and provide personal service.
In China, insurance agents have dominated the market and account for 70% of sales revenue. However NetEase is banking that, as the Chinese population becomes more comfortable with buying online, car insurance will be a natural extension to its business.