Chinese insurance companies are looking to mobile social apps as a new means for business expansion.

Apart from teaming up with the country's largest online site Taobao Marketplace, some insurer s are embracing mobile chat app WeChat as a way to capture customer attention.

Beijing -based Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd has rolled out a beta-version health policy via WeChat, whose user base totaled 600 million by the end of 2013.

Via bank card transaction or WeChat's embedded payment function, customers can pay one yuan ($0.16) for insurance coverage worth 1,000 yuan should they be diagnosed with cancer.

Customers can even "ask for donations" by posting the policy on "Friend Circle", an integrated function enabling WeChat users to share insights and photos in a personal network.

Donating a one yuan premium can add up to 1,000 yuan in insurance coverage for people aged 18 to 39, and 300 yuan for those 40 to 49 years old.

The ceiling for coverage is capped at 100,000 yuan.

Marketers of the WeChat-only product are clamoring to engage the app's vast number of active users, Ding Junfeng, vice-general manager of Taikang Life's innovation business unit, told a media briefing on Tuesday.

"We aim to make people understand the mutual-assistance feature of insurance. The Internet is an influential force reshaping the industry and pushing us to stay ahead of the curve," Ding said.

Online insurance is hardly a novelty in China. Taobao has become a major avenue for insurers to tap a growing number of netizens who are usually more intrigued by innovative and personalized promotions than the old-fashioned hard sell.

For instance, Taobao and German insurer Allianz unveiled a "full-moon" insurance policy that pledged to compensate policyholders if they were unable to enjoy full-moon gazing during China's Mid-Autumn Festival.

China's first online insurance firm, ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd, started selling policies in December that help exempt small-cap virtual merchants from registration fees.

 

The policy is applicable to the 9 million individual vendors on Taobao, where they can buy insurance starting from 18 yuan as a waiver of the 1,000-yuan registration premium, said Li Jian, who oversees ZhonAn's product designs.

By the end of last year, 60 insurance firms in China had expanded to online sales channels, up 46 percent from two years ago, according to a report published by the Insurance Association of China on Tuesday.

Premiums climbed to 29.1 billion yuan from 3.2 billion during the same period, up 202 percent year-on-year.

The Internet has added a cost-effective distribution channel for insurance brokers, according to Zhou Xiye, regional vice-president of global health benefits for Cigna and CMC Life Insurance Co.

"Those destined for success offer single products on a single site, commit to the direct marketing formula, take ownership of the technology and leverage the database-building abilities of the Web," Zhou said.

WeChat's tailor-made products encapsulate the e-commerce, mobile and social networking features in a nutshell, said Zhang Meng, an analyst with consultancy Analysys International.

"It's so personal that brands are experimenting with creating compelling content to allow brands into their inner circles," said Zhang.

Tied to users' phones, WeChat raises social interaction to a higher level, with functionalities such as voice-messaging and location-based services, according to an annual study on China's social media landscape by social business monito r CIC.

It described WeChat as a customer relations management magnet that allows marketers to face their consumers, develop online-to-offline strategies and target their preferred audience.