Ant’s Xiang Hu Bao, which means mutual protection, has attracted 50 million people since its October inception, or more than five times the population of New York City.
Ant, best known for the Paypal-like Alipay service that underpins Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s online shopping platform, is re-designing financial products from money market funds to consumer credit that have long been dominated by state-owned Chinese behemoths. The company’s foray into healthcare comes at a time when the country is grappling with a rapidly aging population, one of the more pressing long-term threats to the world’s second-largest economy.
Ma’s company joins a raft of startups angling to disrupt old-school health insurance in China, including Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sinovation Ventures-backed Waterdrop. Beijing-based Waterdrop crowdfunds from 78 million users and paid out more than 95mil yuan to members in the four or so months ended October, according to its website.
Ant says Xiang Hu Bao isn’t an insurance product and thus isn’t subject to the same regulatory oversight governing traditional industry players like Ping An Insurance Group Co.