You can now send insurance via KakaoTalk

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You can now send insurance via KakaoTalk

Published: 23 Aug. 2021, 18:50

Kakao Commerce started selling digital insurance coupons through Kakao Talk on Aug. 23, a first for an e-commerce service in Korea. [KAKAO COMMERCE]

Kakao Commerce has started selling online coupons for insurance products that people can purchase and give to others through Kakao Talk on Monday, the first for an e-commerce service in Korea.

"You can now send someone an insurance plan gift like you send them coffee coupons," Kakao Commerce said in a press release on Monday.

Coop Fimaps, a local tech startup, developed the service and acts as the insurance agency. It is serviced under the Onion brand name.

If a Kakao Talk user purchases and sends an insurance coupon to a friend, the recipient will be referred to an insurance company’s website.

Insurance plans could not be sold online because it was deemed as soliciting insurance contracts using a means of communication, which was prohibited by the Insurance Business Act.

A revision of the act was made last December, which categorized Coop Fimaps as an “innovative financial service” and allowed it to sell insurance coupons on online shopping platforms.

The first 12 insurance programs available through the new service will be low-priced and lifestyle-related, such as insurances for pets, traveling and leisure activities.

AIG’s “Single Reassurance Plan,” for example, is a 26,000 won ($22.14) plan that covers the hospital fees of a person living in a single-person household. If a user pays the 26,000 won, the recipient is covered for the whole year without having to pay more.

Coop Fimaps has been designated as an innovative financial service until 2022, so the insurance plans that are sold right now will only be available for a year.

“Mobile coupons are diversifying to cater to the needs of the millennial and Generation Z consumers, who want to give practical and uncommon gifts to others,” a spokesperson from Kakao Commerce said. “We expect the small-sized insurance market to grow bigger with the new online coupon products, which are very easy to use.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]