WhatsApp to Start Offering Health Insurance, Micro-Pension Products in India Soon.
By the end of the year, WhatsApp plans to start offering affordable health insurance coverage from SBI General.
(Image Source - Google Images)
WhatsApp plans to start rolling out health insurance and micro-pension offers in India.
India chief Abhijit Bose revealed WhatsApp's roadmap to deliver "critical livelihoods and financial services" to the country's mobile users at the Facebook Fuel for India event.
The Facebook-owned company is working with SBI General to launch health insurance products, while HDFC Pension and Singapore-based firm PinBox Solutions are on board to offer micro-pension products.
The new developments come alongside WhatsApp's digital payments company: WhatsApp Pay.
By the end of the year, WhatsApp will begin offering affordable health insurance coverage from SBI General, Bose said during his presentation at the virtual event.
The executive also announced WhatsApp's partnership with HDFC Pension and PinBox Solutions to begin testing micro-pension products through the messaging app.
"These pilots, along with others at edtech and agritech to name a few, offer tremendous promise and would help support the Government of India's priorities for a more digitized economy, especially for rural and underserved segments," Bose said.
WhatsApp aims to become a competitive platform for insurance companies and firms offering micro-pension products and to expand its presence in the Indian financial sector with the new move. Bose also underlined that the messaging app will facilitate the delivery of health insurance and micro-pensions to Indian users regardless of their location and income.
(Image Source - Google Images)
"We have designed specific products that will address healthcare needs in an affordable and hassle-free manner, and will be available through WhatsApp," said Amar Joshi, commercial director of SBI General.
The huge user base of more than 400 million people in the country makes WhatsApp attractive to the country's insurance and pension providers.
Sumit Shukla, CEO of HDFC Pension Management, said WhatsApp was enabling digital and financial inclusion at an accelerating pace. "WhatsApp as a platform is multilingual, secure, and is revolutionizing the way financial services are accessed and facilitated in our country," he said.
Along with its pilot insurance and micro-pension services, WhatsApp is delving further into the Indian digital economy with its payments feature and the WhatsApp Business API.
Ongoing developments are aimed at taking on companies like Google Pay, Alibaba-backed Paytm, and Flipkart-owned PhonePe.
Right after WhatsApp made public its plans to offer insurance products, PhonePe claimed that it processed more than 11 million insurance premiums through its platform in the last year.
The digital payments platform offers the option to pay insurance premiums for more than 30 insurers. He said that 80 percent of total premiums for the year came from users in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
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