Ping An adds 10,000 China clinics to its health care business
Ping An Insurance Group, the world’s second-largest insurer by value, is adding a network of medical clinics in mainland China to its range of services, part of a strategy to create a one-stop financial supermarket to serve a customer’s every need from car insurance to banking and securities.
Ping An has signed 10,000 clinics to its Wanjia Clinics platform since July to serve the 110 million users of its Ping An Doctor health portal, said Lee Yuansiong, executive director of the Shenzhen-based company.
“Our model is like a 7-Eleven for financial services,” Lee said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. “Every client now buys two of our financial products on average. We’re aiming to grow that number.”
China’s current network of 200,000 private clinics could more than double to half a million over the next decade amid a government overhaul of the nation’s overburdened public hospital system.
The world’s most populous nation is also rapidly greying, with the number of people older than 60 expected to surge from 209.2 million in 2015 to 492.5 million by the end of 2050, according to the United Nation’s World Population Prospects report. Chinese citizens are already spending 4 trillion yuan (US$590 billion) every year on healthcare, according to government data. That’s likely to more than double over the next decade to 10 trillion yuan, according to Lee.
I expect it to take five to 10 years to see their effect on Ping An’s bottom line
Ping An Doctor, a closely held unit of the Hong Kong-traded Ping An, is valued at US$3 billion after its A-round financing, Lee said.