The online market for life insurance has been started by KDB Life in November last year, followed by entrance of five mid-sized life insurers such as Shinhan Life, Hyundai Life, Mirae Asset Life, IBK Pension Life, and Lina Life. But this is the first time for a large life insurer like Hanwha to enter the market. Other big life insurers such as Kyobo and Samsung Life will follow suit within the year's end.

 

Unlike the online auto insurance market in which the online share accounts for 28.7 percent of the total, however, taking out a life insurance policy online has certain obstacles to quick market expansion, including the complicated nature of life insurance terms and the long-term commitment lasting more than ten years. For example, the first mover KDB Life said its daily number of customers newly signing up is only 500. Its daily visitor number has increased more than ten times to 5,000 or 6,000, the actual number of people signing up online is fewer than 1 percent of that.