South Korea’s insurance companies are changing themselves. While they had focused on stable business strategies through their own personnel and systems, now they are focusing on improving process by working with startup companies and developing various products. They have decided to work with outside companies to grab upper hands in new markets as ITs are accelerating innovation within financial industry.
According to relevant industries, insurance companies are starting to join hands with FinTech and Insurtech companies that vary from companies that provide personalized data to companies that develop services for dogs.
Hanwha General Insurance has made a partnership with Rainist, which operates a personal asset management application called ‘BankSalad’. BankSalad mainly provides a service that shows data per financial company such as bank, credit card company, and insurance company. It has recently started to provide a service that inquires and analyzes data of actual asset such as real estate and car.
Hanwha General Insurance also developed an API (Application Programming Interface) that provides information on its insurance products to customers of BankSalad. Hanwha General Insurance and Rainist have decided to find ways to innovate process and strengthen their customer service based on data.
DB Insurance has decided to work with Rainist regarding AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbot and UBI (Usage-Based Insurance) through various Insurtech-related partnership.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and DB Insurance are working on expanding pet insurance market by working with a PetTech company called Fitpet. Although insurance companies introduce various pet insurances in the past, they were not vitalized due to distrust between vets and dog owners. There had been many incidences where dog owners did not receive any guarantee even after they joined pet insurances since they could not check the status of their dogs. However, insurance companies have decided to resolve such distrust by introducing Fitpet’s solution that recognizes a shape of a dog’s nose. They believe that they will be able to secure trust by using this solution as the authentication method. Confirmation process can be checked through Smartphones as well.
Reason why insurance companies are working with startups is because they want to prepare for fast changes that are taking place within their industry. Due to insurance industry’s characteristics, insurance companies are relatively late on decision making. As a result, they have hard time keeping up with developing and applying ITs that are quickly changing. This is why they are working with startups to overcome their limitation.
This kind of trend is already taking place in foreign countries. As a result of increased usage of Insurtech, a concept of an insurance product in China is changing from a practice that guarantees long-term risks to a type that guarantees short-term risks that can occur in daily life. Insurtech companies and insurance companies are working together to overcome various limitations.
In case of ZhongAn’s Insurance, which is China’s biggest online insurance company, is recording huge growth by actively working with Insurtech companies. Since its establishment in 2013, it is recording an annual growth of 96% on average.
“Recent trend within global insurance industry has insurance companies working with startups for faster innovation.” said a representative for the industry. “This type of partnership will be expanded further as insurance companies are showing interests in healthcare and other industries and as new markets such as pet insurance and others are starting to receive spotlight.”
Staff Reporter Park, Yoonho | yuno@etnews.com