This photo provided by Pireco Co. shows its biometrics-based recognition solution for pets
SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Pet insurance policies suffering from low subscription rates are teaming up with information technology (IT) to lower monthly fees and revitalize the market.
The Korea Insurance Research Institute reported that South Korea’s pet insurance subscription rate stood at 0.25 percent, which was far below Sweden (40 percent), Britain (25 percent) and Japan (6 percent).
Developing insurance plans and price-setting requires age information from pets, which can be collected from the pet registry.
South Korea, however, still shows a low pet registration rate and new registrations using manipulation-free internal chips stand at a mere 60 percent.
In addition, veterinary clinics have different and unclear pricing for medical treatment, all of which work as a factor for higher insurance fees.
In response, the industry has been picking up ‘insuretech’, a fintech for insurance products, to overcome these obstacles.
Korean startup Petnow has developed an app that identifies each dog by scanning its nasal folds.
Another insuretech company EveryPet has implemented a nasal fold recognition technology on the point of sale system at the Korea Insurance Research Institute.
The institute expects that a price-comparison platform for veterinary clinics, which has recently been garnering more users, will contribute to the spread of pet insurance.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
