Tencent's insurance platform WeSure has expanded its line of products and formed partnerships with 20 insurance and reinsurance companies.
Image: WeSure chairman and CEO Alan Lau. Photo: Courtesy of PR Newswire.
The ‘data-driven’ and ‘social connection’ features of WeChat, as WeSure chairman & CEO Alan Lau, mentioned in a recent CNBC interview, will help WeSure recommend more suitable products to users, while partnerships with more insurance companies will continue to diversify the platform’s offerings.
Lau said: “So far we have formed partnerships with more than 20 insurance companies, including Taikang, Pacific Insurance, PICC, Ping An, MetLife, and more. We will continue to widen our offerings and take a user angle to pre-select and customize products. We aim to make insurance far more user-centric than before – transparent terms, easy purchase process, affordable prices, and fun experience, so it is easier for users to access, understand and choose the right insurance product on WeSure.”
Hosted in the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem, a platform that most people in China access every day, WeSure can better leverage its social feature.
Lau said: “Insurance is complicated and hard to experience, so a friend endorsement goes a long way. We have a product referral rate of 50%, and those that receive referrals are twice as likely to buy.”
WeSure always aims to solve problems, rather than just ‘selling a product’. For example, it launched a first-in-China term life and annuity product aiming to solve a family values problem in China. Many young people in China left their hometowns to work and do not live with their aging parents. Working off a traditional term life product which only offer a fixed lump sum payment, WeSure restructured the protection so that users will only have to pay RMB15 ($2.16) per month, and their parents will get RMB1000 ($144) monthly support for as long as they live.
Lau said: “By making insurance relatable and affordable, we help to broaden protection to more people in China.”
Rolled out in November last year, WeSure ranks No.1 among insurance Mini Programs on WeChat. The easy-to-understand insurance products on the platform have earned it more than 20 million monthly active users and won high customer satisfaction from 95.7% of users who purchased on the platform. WeSure strategically selects new insurance products and works with partners to customize them. On average it takes 1.5 to 2 months to go through 6 to 8 iterations before a product is launched on the platform. Products launched so far cover health, auto, life, and travel.
Tencent’s 2018 third quarter results was better-than-expected, with profit attributable to equity holders for the quarter at RMB19,710m ($2.86bn), representing an increase of 15% YoY. Leveraging on its large-scale payment platform and core technologies, Tencent has expanded its FinTech services to the area of insurance, benefitting more WeSure users. WeSure will continue to add simple and customized products to enrich its portfolio, and release more features to make insurance fun by encouraging interactivity with users.
Source: Company Press Release