Study finds online insurance purchases booming

Source: Xinhua | 2019-02-26

China’s online insurance market is expected to see further growth given the country’s large population of netizens and their high acceptance of seeking protection online, a new industry report says.

The study by WeSure Internet Insurance Ltd, an insurance agency platform affiliated with Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, and Tencent’s Customer Research & User Experience Design Center covered 24,195 online responses from people in five cities. Among those surveyed, 63.1 percent indicated that they have private insurance plans, either bought by themselves or by family members.

And 27.7 percent said they had bought insurance online.

Respondents were largely married, well-educated white-collar workers above the age of 30.

At 27.7 percent of respondents, that extrapolates to more than 220 million policy-holders in the world’s second-largest economy having bought their policies online, as data from the China Internet Network Information Center shows the number of Internet users was 802 million as of end-June 2018.

China has seen explosive growth in its Internet insurance industry during the past few years.

The number of insurance policies sold online surged 18-fold from 2012 to 2016, statistics from the Insurance Association of China showed. The survey found 92.7 percent of respondents said protection was the most important reason for buying insurance, followed by using it as a form of compulsory savings or an alternative to investments.

The study found the three most popular insurance types were the relatively complex long-term accidental insurance, long-term critical disease insurance and life insurance.

The online purchase rate of one-year non-life insurance covering risks from critical diseases and other medical expenses was high, the study said.

Diseases were the top concern for Internet users aged around 50.

Those aged 18-35 worried more about accidents, and worries about old-age care reached its peak for people aged around 55.