• WhatsApp Insurance? Shouldn’t WeChat?

The Last Word
On a global scale, the insurance industry is buffeted
by a variety of business and technology forces,
making it ripe for instant messaging adoption.
• For life and retirement, this new channel
helps meet the challenges that cause underand
non-insurance, including a lack of financial
understanding and product complexity.
• Demand for instantaneous, 24x7, hasslefree
customer service can be satisfied by
these “always-on” applications.
• Increased technology adoption by consumers
across all demographics, and the gradual shift
toward paperless, virtual experiences, paves
the way for the adoption of IM channels.
With the steady rise in importance and use of
mobile messengers, insurers of all sizes, geographies
and lines of business will need to adopt
messengers as a prominent channel for sales,
service, education and engagement. We recommend
carriers consider the following steps to
ensure successful implementation and adoption.
• Analyze the current digital strategy to
understand channel usage by different
customer segments to decide which services
need to be provided by messengers.
• Assess available messengers, paying attention
to the best choice for hosting apps on the
messenger (e.g., Facebook Messenger) or
extending current services to a new channel.
• Set up security protocols to meet data security
and other compliance needs.
• Implement an organizational change
management strategy, with attention to integrating
the new channel with current frontand
back-office processes.
• Establish KPIs to measure IM channel usage
and gradually course-correct when needed.
Footnotes
1
“2 Billion Consumers Worldwide to Get Smart(phones) by 2016,” eMarketer, Dec. 11, 2014, http://www.
emarketer.com/Article/2-Billion-Consumers-Worldwide-Smartphones-by-2016/1011694.
2
“The Mobile Money Landscape: Market Statistics And Expert Views,” Monitise, Vol. 1, 2014, http://www.
monitise.com/what-we-think/2014/06/25/important-mobile-engagement-2014/.
3
“Number of Monthly Active WhatsApp Users Worldwide, April 2013 to September 2015,” Statista, http://
www.statista.com/statistics/260819/number-of-monthly-active-whatsapp-users/.
4
“Number of Monthly Active WeChat Users, Second-Quarter 2010 to Third-Quarter 2015,” Statista, http://
www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/.
5
“Number of Monthly Active Facebook Messenger Users, April 2014 to June 2015,” Statista, http://www.
statista.com/statistics/417295/facebook-messenger-monthly-active-users/.
6
“Global Mobile Payment Transaction Volume, 2010 to 2017,” Statista, http://www.statista.com/
statistics/226530/mobile-payment-transaction-volume-forecast/.
7
Tony Danova, “Top Smartphone Trends in Major Mobile Markets around the World,” Business Insider,
March 10, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.in/The-top-smartphone-trends-in-major-mobile-marketsaround-the-world/articleshow/46521853.cms.
8
Mini Swamy, “What Is Up with Kazakhstan Bank Customer Engagement? WhatsApp Is Up,” Interactive
Intelligence, May 30, 2014, http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/Analysis/articles/380016-what-up-withkazakhstan-bank-customer-engagement-whatsapp.htm.
9
Jon Russell, “Buzzfeed Jumps Aboard the Messaging App Train Starting with WeChat,” TechCrunch, Nov.
18, 2014, http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/18/buzzfeed-jumps-aboard-the-messaging-app-train-startingwith-wechat/.
10
Vijaya Rathore and Varuni Khosia, “Luxury Brands Like Cartier, Armani, Diesel and Others Use WhatsApp
to Promote Products in India,” The Economic Times, Oct. 9, 2014, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.
com/2014-10-09/news/54827542_1_whatsapp-reliance-brands-corneliani.
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