EP 72 – Charles Hung – Blue Hong Kong – How to Unlock the Power of Data

13 Jul 2020Posted By Michael Waitze

Host

Michael Waitze

Michael Waitze worked in Global Finance for more than 20 years, employed by firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, primarily in Tokyo. Michael lived and worked in Tokyo from February 1990 until December 2011. Michael always maintained a particular focus on how technology could be used to make businesses more efficient and to drive P/L growth. Michael is a leader in the digital media space, building one of the biggest and fastest-growing podcast listener bases in the region. His AsiaTechPodcast.com show has listeners in more than 170 countries and his company, Michael Waitze Media produces some of Asia’s most popular podcasts.

Guest

Charles Hung

As the CEO & Executive Director of Blue, Charles is instrumental in the launch of Blue, which is the first digital life insurer in Hong Kong. He is responsible for leading, managing and developing Blue’s business strategies, with a key objective of revolutionizing the insurance experience for customers. Charles has close to 30 years’ experience in business development, innovation, technology & operations, and risk management spanning across insurance, asset management and banking sectors in Asia, Europe and the United States.

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In this episode, Michael Waizte talks to Charles Hung, the CEO & Executive Director of Blue Hong Kong, a joint venture between Hillhouse Capital, a leading investment management firm, Tencent Holdings Limited, a leading Internet value-added services provider, and insurance group Aviva. Blue focuses on providing simple, flexible, and valuable insurance solutions through online channels and is experiencing healthy gross even during the current global pandemic.

Charles is sharing the reasoning behind starting Blue in the first place and talks about the benefits of corporate venture building. With founding panthers in the areas of technology, insurance, and VC, Blue has a strong foundation to become a major digital player in the insurance market in Hong Kong. However, selling insurance directly online always comes with challenges around customer acquisition, and the need to educate people and increase financial literacy. Blue has developed video clips to educate people about the importance of insurance and runs various marketing campaigns including games to engage potential customers.

Apart from strong marketing campaigns, insights on customer behavior are highly important. Michael and Charles are talking about the importance of data in insurance and how Blue is leveraging big data to improve products and customer service. Data is enabling Blue to better understand their customers and their pain points. Based on insights generated from user data, Blue continues to optimise and streamline internal processes and enhance user experience. For example, Blue is tracking the time users spend on different parts of the online sales journey in order to understand where the process might need improvement.

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To get in touch with the Uncharted team, email them at info@uncharted.global

The audio on this episode was expertly edited and produced by the talented Alanis Braun. You can see her portfolio here and her LinkedIn profile here.

The music on this episode was created by Jay Man and is called “Soaring”.