China’s Ping An Technology aims to generate half its business from external customers
Ping An Technology, a subsidiary of China’s second-largest life insurer, is aiming to develop a multi-billion-yuan business in coming years by offering in-house technologies and services to external customers.
“We have got off to a good start in wooing more external customers, and expect the business could account for about half of Ping An Technology’s total in three to five years,” Ricky Ou Haiying, the company’s chief product officer, told the South China Morning Post. “In certain areas, we will directly compete with the established giants.”
He would not disclose the sales target set by Ping An Technology, but said the size of the business could amount to several billion yuan.
The company’s artificial intelligence technologies, which include facial recognition, as well as its cloud computing services can be applied to other financial institutions, public utilities and manufacturing firms as they increasingly adapt to a digital era amid Beijing’s “Internet Plus” strategy.
We have got off to a good start in wooing more external customers, and expect the business could account for about half of [our] total in three to five years
Ping An Technology was founded in 2008 as an in-house provider of information technology services for all companies within the group. It currently has about 6,500 staff.