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French insurance giant AXA has formed a global strategic partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its affiliated payment platform Ant Financial.
The three parties will work together to develop innovative new products that can be offered to customers globally, support each other in international expansion, and target new market segments.
The first phase of the partnership will focus on three areas: AXA will develop insurance products like online payment protection for AliExpress, Alibaba’s global retail online marketplace; it will provide insurance products for small- and mid-size businesses that use Alibaba’s wholesale marketplaces; and it will offer travel insurance products through Ant Financial to Chinese travelers going abroad.
The partnership provides AXA with new opportunities to help it compete with insurtechs. Cementing its position in China. AXA has a significant presence in Asia, with around 10% market share in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand. In China, its share is much smaller, at around 1%, and AXA likely hopes it will be able to leverage Alibaba’s knowledge of the Chinese market to expand that share.
Access to new market segments. Partnering with Alibaba gives AXA access to a new distribution channel and Alibaba’s massive base of online shoppers. Alibaba has over 367 million active customers, excluding its small business customers.
Data. AXA will likely be able to leverage Alibaba’s customer data to better target prospects. This could be invaluable when it comes to creating the "bespoke" products that it hopes to create for Alibaba’s customers.
The partnership highlights a growing trend across the insurance and tech industries — convergence. Technology is opening up new opportunities throughout the insurance value chain. Rapid advances in data collection and analysis mean better […]
