When Pathom Indarodom crashed his new car into a telephone pole in central Bangkok, he was daunted by the thought of spending days, if not months, filing a claim with his car insurer.
But he soon remembered hearing about an app from a friend. Instead of calling his insurance company, he downloaded the app, snapped a photo of his car and uploaded it. In just two hours his claim was approved. "I didn't meet or talk with the insurance company staff at all," he said.
Since its launch in 2014, the Claim Di app, developed by Thai entrepreneur Kittinan Anuphan, has been downloaded 40,000 times. It is used by 38 insurance companies and is handy in accidents involving other cars, too. Drivers simply shake their smartphones to exchange personal information, upload photos and, if the accident is not serious, leave the scene in a few minutes.
Traffic accidents are, unfortunately, not rare in Thailand, which has the world's second-highest rate of traffic fatalities. After an incident, it is common to wait for hours at the roadside for a claims adjuster, who eventually shows up with a pile of paperwork to fill out.
Claim Di does away with all that, and also addresses the issue of fraud -- such as inflated claims by adjusters and repair shops -- by allowing only photos taken on the scene with time stamps and GPS locations to be uploaded. "I wanted to solve problems on Thai roads," Kittinan said. He recently launched Claim Di in Singapore after tweaking some features for that market.
The app is just one of the many services and products that have emerged to cater to the specific needs of Asian customers. Companies are coming up with unique, hassle-free features to encourage people to take up insurance in a part of the world where the penetration rate is still low.
Islamic insurance, or takaful, sold in Muslim-majority countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, is another example. The product is based on the idea of risk-sharing and mutual insurance. Numbers of participants agree to support one another by contributing to a fund that pays out if a covered event takes place. Takaful is structured to comply with Shariah Islamic law. Premiums, too, are invested in Shariah-compliant instruments.
Companies are finding innovative ways to reach customers. In India, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance, a joint venture between Muragappa Group and Japan's MS&AD Insurance Group, is setting up "insurance vending machines" in villages. The machines can issue insurance policies on the spot, complementing the work of branch offices. Reaching rural areas is crucial to raising India's penetration rate of less than 4%.
At Thailand's ubiquitous 7-Eleven stores -- there are 9,000 of them across the country -- insurance companies sell inexpensive life and nonlife policies with annual premiums as low as 200 baht ($6). In Bangladesh, insurers have teamed up with mobile communications companies to offer customers life insurance for next to nothing when they recharge their phones.
Products for specific life events such as paying for school and weddings are catching on in some Asian countries. "Over 90% of Cambodians are Buddhists, who believe in rebirth -- that death is not the end of life," said Tondy Suradiredja, an Indonesian who runs local insurer Cambodia Life Insurance. "That makes it very difficult to explain to people [the need for] protection [at] death," he said.
Even if the concept of insurance is slowly spreading among Asian consumers, the vast majority are still reluctant to pay premiums purely for protection. They prefer short-term savings products that promise cash returns. At a promotional event in March in the southern Thai province of Hat Yai, life insurers offered life insurance policies with maturities as short as three years. Said one industry official: "Short-term products barely make a profit, but that's what people want. We cater to those needs in the belief that someday they will understand."
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