Page 46 - Forbes - Asia (June 2018)
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GLOBAL 2OOO












                       INSURANCE AS





                 ENTRÉE TO TECH








                      Jessica Tan has overseen Chinese giant Ping An’s parallel  and
                                           sweeping rise in big data.


                                               BY SHU-CHING JEAN CHEN


                               ing An Insurance is China’s biggest insurer, but it really reigns supreme as
                               the industry No. 1 by profit and return on equity. Its market capitalization, at

                               $180 billion, is 74% larger than the country’s old standard, China Life, and
                               64% above the largest listed pan-Asia insurer, AIA. By this measure it is the
                    Pworld’s largest insurer except for Berkshire Hathaway.
                        To make sense of these startling numbers—and of Ping An’s rise to No. 10 on the
                     Forbes Global 2000—look beyond the stodgy insurance business and into the realm of
                     high technology whose tentacles reach into every aspect of commerce in China and
                     eventually show up in the mobile handsets of Chinese consumers.
                        Ping An has early-mover advantage in mobile apps and underlying technologies

                     from artificial intelligence and blockchain. Spreading across Ping An’s vast territory in
                     finance, encompassing insurance, banking and asset management, are ten startups it has

                     spawned in the last six years.
                        The engine and incubator is a wholly owned fi ntech ofshoot, Ping An Technology,

                     which leads the FinTech Top 100, a global survey by consultancy IDC, as China’s top
                     player, ahead of rival Hangzhou-based Hundsun Technologies backed by Ant Financial.


                     The efort bridges financial big data with healthcare management.
                        From this wellspring came startups including peer-to-peer lender Lufax, set up in
                     2012, fetching a valuation of $18.5 billion in a fundraising two years ago; Ping An Good
                     Doctor, a healthcare portal with 30 million-plus monthly active users whose recent
                     IPO raised $1.1 billion in Hong Kong; and Ping An Healthcare Technology, a mobile
                     app for booking hospital visits used by 800 million customers across 70% of cities
                     in China.

                        To consumers, the ofer is often free mobile apps. But there’s a business-to-business
                     app: OneConnect, linking 2,400 banks and nonfinancial institutions and valued at

                     $7.4 billion in its last funding round.
                        Ping An’s technology czar is Jessica Tan, a 41-year-old Singaporean who travels back

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