China: First internet-based life insurer awaits regulatory approval
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Oct 2015
Internet giant Tencent Holdings will set up China’s first internet-based life insurance company with state-run firm CITIC Guoan Group, when the venture receives regulatory approval.
Tencent and CITIC Guoan will hold similar stakes in the joint venture which is positioned to be an innovative and light-asset online insurance firm. The other shareholders include private enterprises such as Shandong Sanxing Group and Beijing Easy Home. The actual shareholdings in the joint venture are yet to be disclosed.
Tencent, a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide media, entertainment, internet and mobile phone value-added services, could target its user groups as customers of the life insurance venture.
Although the new company is to be an internet life insurance firm, people with direct knowledge of the matter said that it will develop bancassurance and internet sales channels simultaneously in the initial stage so as to achieve scale quickly, reported the China Daily.