Ant Financial’s mutual-aid platform Xiang Hu Bao attracts 100 million users, boosts insurers’ sales by 60 per cent in first year
- More than 10,000 people have obtained financial aid through the platform as of November
- About 60 per cent of its users come from third or lower tier cities, counties and rural areas
Xiang Hu Bao, an online mutual-aid platform owned by Ant Financial, has attracted 100 million users since its launch a year ago and helped insurers on Alipay’s platform increase their health policy revenues by 60 per cent.
The platform, which is popular among China’s rural population, is not an insurance product, but a collective claim sharing mechanism built on blockchain technology that offers basic health plans to protect participants against 100 types of critical illnesses. It has, however, motivated participants to look beyond mutual aid and buy health insurance polices offered by its partner insurers. Its 100 million users make up 7 per cent of China’s population, which stands at 1.43 billion according to the latest estimate by the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
As of this month, more than 10,000 people had obtained financial aid through the platform, Ant Financial said.
More than 70 insurance companies sell their policies on Ant Financials’ insurance platform, which is operated independently from Xiang Hu Bao. The 60 per cent growth represents the total incremental health policy sales achieved by them since Xiang Hu Bao’s launch, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Xiang Hu Bao helps cultivate a greater understanding of the benefits of obtaining protection against illnesses … One in three participants intends to buy a critical illness insurance product over the next six months,” Ant Financial said, citing a survey conducted by FT Confidential Research, a research service from The Financial Times that provides data-based, analytical insight into China and Southeast Asia. It added such an intention was higher than 22 per cent among those who were not its users.
Xiang Hu Bao was launched in October 2018 on Ant Financial’s mobile payments platform, Alipay. About 60 per cent of its users came from third or lower tier cities, counties and rural areas, Ant Financial said. About a tenth of them have no health care plans other than Xiang Hu bao. Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.
