AIA Korea launches upgraded healthcare platform

By Kim Bo-eun

AIA Korea CEO Peter Chung / Courtesy of AIA Korea

AIA Korea introduced an upgraded version of AIA Vitality, its app-based healthcare platform, Wednesday.

The pan-Asian life insurance company's local unit first introduced AIA Vitality in August 2018. The upgraded platform encourages customers to lead healthy lifestyles by offering insurance discounts and various other benefits. It is run on a paid membership basis.

“AIA Vitality is a global health and wellness program that encourages healthy activity by insurance discounts,” AIA Korea CEO Peter Chung said in an online press conference.

The Vitality program has been launched in markets around the world.

AIA Korea has partnered with SK Telecom, SK C&C and Samsung Electronics to launch the upgraded platform. SK Telecom and AIA Korea have worked together in the past on healthcare programs, and SK C&C undertook the development of the AIA Vitality app. Samsung Electronics is a new partner, collaborating with AIA via its latest Galaxy watch.

Users of AIA Vitality are required to pay a monthly fee of 5,500 won. They can get a 10 percent discount in insurance premiums in advance and are able to receive up to a 20 percent discount if they walk regularly, eat healthily and get regular health checkups.

The platform was previously operated on a free membership basis. AIA Korea's CEO said this was a "teaser" and that in all other markets where AIA Vitality has been launched, it is operating on a paid-membership basis.

"Members who pay a fee engage much more frequently in improving their health," Chung said, citing the behavior of Vitality users in other markets.

"Now they can get the complete program including insurance discounts and lifestyle rewards."

AIA Vitality has an accumulated 1.6 million users.

The CEO, who was appointed in January this year, said AIA intends to continue operating in Korea. His remark comes at a time foreign insurers are increasingly pulling out of the local market, given unfavorable market conditions.

"AIA Group is fully committed to the Korean market. AIA operates in 18 markets in Asia and in our 101-year history, we have never left a single market," Chung said.

"Korea is an important market, and a big market," he added, stating Korea's insurance market is the seventh-largest in the world and the third-largest in Asia. He said the large protection gap that exists in the Korean market presents opportunities for insurance companies, referring to the $3.9 trillion mortality protection gap as of 2019.