Amazon is now selling auto insurance in India
The biggest name in e-commerce said it also plans to expand its new insurance offerings to cover health, flight and cabs.
An already competitive auto insurance marketplace has added another major player.
Amazon’s India business announced on July 23 that it is now offering auto insurance to cover two- and four-wheelers in the country, Yahoo’s TechCrunch reports.
Amazon has partnered with Mumbai-based Acko General Insurance to offer customers car and motor-bike insurance. Amazon is also an investor in Acko, Yahoo notes.
At a fintech conference on Wednesday, Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive and director of Amazon Pay in India, said the company was planning to expand its insurance service to offer coverage on health, flight and cabs.
Amazon’s auto insurance is available to customers through Amazon Pay on the e-commerce giant’s website and app. The company said buying insurance will take less than two minutes and requires no paperwork.
The company also said its Amazon Prime customers in India will be able to access additional benefits and discounts, but did not identify those benefits. The popular loyalty program costs about $13 a year in India, compared to $119 annually in the U.S.
The state of the auto insurance marketplace in India
India’s insurance market is the latest financial services sector that has attracted the attention of local and international tech giants, Yahoo’s TechCrunch reports.
Presently, only a fraction of India’s 1.3 billion populants have access to insurance. According to rating agency ICRA, insurance products had reached less than 3% of the population as of 2017. An average Indian makes about $2,100 a year, according to the World Bank. Of those Indians who had purchased an insurance product, they were spending less than $50 on it in 2017, ICRA estimated.
In light of Amazon’s new insurance offering, analysts say that digital firms could prove crucial in bringing these services to the masses.
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