Chinese giant Ping An earmarks US$1.7 billion for technology that will bring its insurance, health care businesses together

Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer by market cap, will increase its annual investment in technology by about 20 per cent this year to 12 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion), co-chief executive Jessica Tan Sin-yin said.

The company budgets 1 per cent of the previous year’s revenue for investment in technology for the following year. Its revenue rose by about 18 per cent to 1.27 trillion yuan in 2019. The increase in investment is aimed at boosting cross-selling between Ping An’s different business lines, such as insurance, health care and financial technology, Tan told the South China Morning Post in a telephone interview.

“Health care has been one of the major focuses of the development of Ping An in recent years. We have three health care companies already. The next step forward is to invest more in technology to bundle our insurance products together with our health care services,” she said. “We will invest in the technology of our core business to enhance productivity and reduce costs. We will also invest more in the area of health tech and fintech in several of our platforms.”

The group, founded by chairman Peter Ma Mingzhe in Shenzhen three decades ago as a life insurance company, has diversified into a financial conglomerate with interests in banking, securities, online medical services, fintech and virtual banks.

It now wants customers using its health care apps or online consultation services to be able to easily buy its insurance products online. Those who have bought its medical insurance will also be able to get claims quickly by using the group’s health care testing labs.

The company said the outbreak of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus thought to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has had a mixed impact on its businesses.