Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Shinhan Life CEO Sung leads insurance firm's innovation
Shinhan Life CEO Sung Dae-kyu / Korea Times file
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Ever since Sung Dae-kyu took over as Shinhan Life CEO in early July, the insurance arm of Shinhan Financial Group has been evaluated positively for its innovative attempts to refresh the firm's image.
Upon taking the top position, CEO Sung vowed that the firm would have its own “fandom,” as the firm strives to pursue global standards, setting its sights beyond becoming the country's top-tier company. It seems like some of his goals are already being achieved.
The insurance company employed Rozy, a virtual influencer, in its TV and online commercials as well as social media postings, drawing more than 20 million views on its YouTube channel in just a month. The drive to attract the attention of the country's younger generations, as well as to renovate its image as innovative and fresh, has been deemed successful.
“The innovation and creativity to become top-class starts with bold actions to decide what to discard and what to add,” CEO Sung said during a recent strategic meeting of the firm. “The past two years have marked phase 1 for the launching of Shinhan Life, and now phase 2 has just started.”
Shinhan Life, after merging with Orange Life, was officially launched in July, after some two years of internal efforts to incorporate the two firms into one.
Shinhan Life says that the synergy effects from the merger will start to show from the latter half of this year.
The firm's net profit in the first half of this year ― the total sum of Shinhan Life and Orange Life before the complete merger in July ― stood at 309 billion won ($270 million), taking the third rank in the country's insurance sector. The company aims to garner over 400 billion won in net profit for this year.