Business
        

Companies

Foreign life insurers seek niche market share

Updated: 2011-04-08 13:06

By Song Jingli (chinadaily.com.cn)

Twitter Facebook Myspace Yahoo! Linkedin Mixx

It's almost a consensus that China is a huge market for insurance companies, but the general manager of Taiping Life Insurance Co Ltd said it's just that wish to gain a big market share in China that prevents the development of many insurance companies.

Zheng Ronglu, Taiping Life's general manager, said insurance companies' expectations for the Chinese market were too high at the beginning and did not pan out in reality.

Related readings:
Foreign life insurers seek niche market share Shanghai plans insurance bourse
Foreign life insurers seek niche market share More Chinese firms adopting credit insurance: survey
Foreign life insurers seek niche market share Shanghai will pilot insurance exchange
Foreign life insurers seek niche market share Insurance agent jailed in blood money murder

Shareholders and management teams differ in opinions, and that's why there is not a joint venture insurance company that has performed well in China in the last decade, he added.

"It is really difficult for foreign insurance companies to compete with major players in China, like China Life and Taiping, so we have to find a niche market," said Renzo Isler, general manager of Generali China Life Insurance Co Ltd, at the 19th Annual Strategic Issues Conference, held Thursday-Friday in Beijing. Isler said his company's group business has become highly competitive.

Although foreign life insurance companies have not gained much of the domain of domestic insurers nationwide, in key cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, they have posed a challenge, Kumjoo Huh, head of Global Business at South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance Co Ltd, said at the conference.

Foreign life insurers had a market share of 5.6 percent in the country in 2010, but they gained a market share of 20 percent in Beijing and a 20.5 percent in Shanghai last year, according to data provided by Huh.

 Foreign life insurers seek niche market share

[Source: Kyobo Life Insurance Co Ltd] 

E-paper

Green light

F1 sponsors expect lucrative returns from Shanghai pit stop

Buying into the romance
Born to fly
Light of hope

European Edition

Specials

Share your China stories!

Foreign readers are invited to share your China stories.

No more Mr. Bad Guy

Italian actor plans to smash ‘foreign devil’ myth and become the first white kungfu star made in China.

Art auctions

China accounted for 33% of global fine art sales.

Beloved polar bear died
Panic buying of salt
'Super moon'