Chinese insurance titan Ping An to take on internet giants as it evolves into a tech powerhouse
Ping An Technology tasked with driving transformation as it focuses on R&D and incubates new businesses
Ping An Insurance (Group) is gearing up to take on mainland China’s internet giants, while pursuing international expansion, under its audacious plan to become a full-fledged technology company.
“Our chairman, Peter Ma Mingzhe, wants to transform the entire group ... into a technology company within 10 years,” Ericson Chan, the chief executive at subsidiary Ping An Technology, told the South China Morning Post.
“Things are happening quite fast, as we’re investing a lot on financial technologies and [other] information technology.”
Ping An Group was founded in Shenzhen in 1988 as the first joint-stock insurance company on the mainland. It has 138 million customers and operates 28 subsidiaries, including China Ping An Life Insurance – the country’s second-largest life insurer by premium size.
In 2008, the group established Ping An Technology as an in-house provider of information technology services for all its operations.
That role has quickly evolved over the past few years, according to Chan. He said Ping An Technology has become increasingly involved in research and development, with the group spending about 8 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) every year, and in incubating new businesses.