"Entrusting Minji (MZ) Made Insurance Hip Too" [Financial Insider]

Kim Hee-jun, Lotte Insurance Alice Team Leader
"MZ Generation Positive About Banks and Securities... Why Not Insurance?"
"Generational Opinions Differ? Boldly Side with MZ"

Unique mini-insurance (small-amount short-term insurance) is capturing the attention of the 2030 generation, who were previously indifferent to insurance. The ‘Deokming-out Accident Insurance’ covers medical expenses if you get injured while attending an idol concert and compensates for losses if you are scammed when buying photocards online. There are also ‘Camping Car Stay Insurance’ that allows you to go camping without worrying about accidents, ‘Smart Device Insurance’ to prepare for expensive repair costs of smart devices, and ‘Filial Impiety Insurance’ for parents who are easily exposed to voice phishing. All of these are unique insurance products listed on Lotte Insurance’s lifestyle-oriented insurance platform, ‘Alice.’

Kim Hee-jun, team leader of the Lotte Insurance Ellis Team, is being interviewed on the 11th at Lotte Insurance in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Kim Hee-jun, team leader of Lotte Insurance’s Alice team, which operates Alice, told Asia Economy at Lotte Insurance’s headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 11th, “We have been ambitiously preparing for four years to target the MZ generation (Millennials + Gen Z).” With 18 years of experience solely in insurance, he said, “These days, young people have a positive image of banks and securities as opportunities to grow assets, but insurance is perceived negatively as difficult and unnecessary. Insurance companies only market to existing customers and fail to approach future customers, so I felt the industry itself was stagnating.”

However, there was widespread skepticism in the insurance industry about whether mini-insurance targeting the MZ generation would truly succeed. Since the monthly premiums range from 1,000 won to less than 10,000 won, it is difficult to generate immediate profits. There were also many concerns that even if a young customer base was secured, there would be long-term limitations. This is because there was no certainty that the younger generation would remain ‘genuine customers’ rather than one-time customers. Kim said, “I was half in doubt even while planning Alice,” adding, “But after the product launch, seeing the growing interest from people in their 20s and 30s, I now see the potential.”

Currently, there are a total of 20 mini-insurance products launched on Alice. Since the platform’s launch in August last year, the number of sales has surpassed 95,000 within about 10 months, and the number of visitors has exceeded 2.5 million. The response on social networking services (SNS) has also been enthusiastic. Kim said, “Even without large-scale marketing such as TV commercials or celebrity models, Alice’s products went viral online on their own,” mentioning, “Deokming-out Accident Insurance became a hot topic on X (formerly Twitter), where many idol fans gather, and Smart Device Insurance gained attention in Naver cafes related to gaming devices, leading to steady contract sign-ups.”

Kim attributed Alice’s success to “targeting a niche market.” “Four to five team members in charge of products for people in their 20s and 30s throw out ideas whenever they spot trends on SNS or from personal experiences. Sometimes they suddenly say, ‘Team leader, how about this?’ There is no separate time for idea meetings. When opinions clash between the MZ generation and older generations, I boldly side with the younger generation. Thanks to this, unlike other mini-insurances that simply reduce existing products to lower premiums, Alice designs unique products that meet the needs of young customers.”

Kim and Alice’s dream goal is to become the world’s number one mini-insurance platform. Kim said, “Since we started planning the mini-insurance platform in 2020, we have benchmarked models both domestically and internationally, but there is no platform like Alice yet,” adding, “We searched through top domestic companies as well as overseas insurers’ cyber marketing (CM) channels, but either they didn’t fit Korea’s financial environment or overseas platforms were actually behind.” He continued, “We aim to achieve economies of scale with a long-tail strategy by loading dozens of mini-insurance products and generating steady profits, targeting the number one spot.”