Online Shopping to Travel Reservations... Shinhan CubeOn Targets Lifestyle Services

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Shinhan Life has launched a healthcare subsidiary and plans to expand its business areas to lifestyle services such as online shopping and travel reservations in the future. This is interpreted as a strategy to expand into a new platform that provides lifestyle-oriented services beyond finance.

According to the insurance industry on the 29th, Shinhan Life established the healthcare specialized subsidiary ‘Shinhan Cube On’ on the 23rd, immediately after receiving approval for subsidiary ownership from the Financial Supervisory Service. The capital is about 20 billion KRW, with Shinhan Life holding 100% of the shares.

The inaugural CEO is Lee Yong-beom, head of the healthcare business team, who has been overseeing Howfit as an in-house venture at Shinhan Life for about two years. The company plans to operate with a small team of around 20 people in a fast startup style.

Shinhan Cube On will engage in tasks aimed at maintaining and promoting health and preventing diseases in advance. It will expand content and services centered on ‘Howfit,’ a digital healthcare platform launched in March.

To add various additional services to Howfit, it plans to expand partnership sales. In particular, Shinhan Cube On has added e-commerce retail brokerage, other travel assistance and reservation services, and database and online information management services as part of its business operations.

Similar to ‘Ttaenggyeoyo,’ an independent food delivery service recently launched by group affiliate Shinhan Bank, this is interpreted as an intention to integrate lifestyle services based on healthcare beyond traditional insurance services.

Shinhan Life is attempting to combine healthcare and lifestyle services by opening a healthcare room at the Gangnam Center in collaboration with CJ CheilJedang. This new business model provides health checkups to visiting customers and recommends customized supplements based on the results, linking them to sales sites.

While existing healthcare services aimed to reduce disease risk and loss ratios through health management of insurance subscribers, Shinhan Life is evaluated to differ in that it expects additional revenue through healthcare services.

Shinhan Cube On is also expected to face fierce competition with KB Healthcare, a healthcare subsidiary of KB Insurance that will officially start services next year. KB Healthcare plans to enter new businesses such as personal asset management and open insurance (insurance information disclosure).

An insurance industry official said, "Since subsidiaries were launched around the same time in the relatively new healthcare field, there is high interest in initial settlement and future business models," adding, "As each is planning slightly different business strategies, various services are expected."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.