Baidu and Allianz team up to grab slice of China’s online insurance market
The financial services arms race between China’s big three internet companies is heating up
The arms race between China’s big three internet companies is heating up in financial services as online search giant Baidu, global insurer Allianz and Asian investor Hillhouse Capital Group form a digital insurance company on the mainland.
This new venture, called Bai An, hopes to expand the domestic market for digital insurance products, in which many traditional property and life insurance companies have yet to participate.
Baidu’s foray into insurance followed its announcement last week of a strategic cooperation deal with China Citic Bank to establish Baixin Bank, which will offer loans and other financial services directly to clients online.
Analysts said those two initiatives represented an aggressive bid by Baidu to bolster its capabilities in financial services against rivals Alibaba and Tencent.
“Baidu is playing catch-up in a 10,000-mile journey,” said Sandy Shen, a research director at Gartner. “Its two main competitors have each established a foothold in banking and insurance, as well as online payment and e-commerce, with a large number of real customers. We have yet to see how Baidu will fare in attracting customers to its two financial services ventures.”
Baidu is playing catch-up in a 10,000-mile journey
In November last year, Alibaba and Tencent joined forces with Ping An Insurance – the mainland’s second-largest insurer – in setting up Zhong An Online Property Insurance to tap growing local demand.