South Africa's first insurance aggregator site is launched

9/17/2007 8:23:08 AM

South Africa's first insurance internet aggregator site, www.hippo.co.za, was launched this month with the promise to eliminate endless hours of shopping around for the best insurance deal.

Hippo.co.za is an innovative search utility that allows busy consumers to solicit the most competitive insurance quotes from a range of big-name insurance providers at the click of a mouse. With Hippo.co.za, consumers need only enter their details once, taking the burden of filling out reams of online forms off their shoulders. In less than four minutes, Hippo.co.za generates an insurance profile, shops around and delivers the top tailor-made solutions for comparison.

Consumers using Hippo.co.za can expect to get quotes from big name insurance companies such as Dial Direct, 1st for Women Insurance, Budget Insurance and Auto & General Insurance with others regularly being added.

Natalie Bisset, manager of Hippo.co.za said:  “Shopping around for the best insurance deal is time-consuming even if you do it online because you have to input your details each time you want generate an online quote on a different insurance provider’s site.

“And, let’s face it, people today have better things to do than spend hours repeating the same details over and over again. Hippo.co.za was developed with this in mind. It is the ultimate online one-stop insurance shop, giving consumers instant and easy access to a range of insurance solutions, tailored specifically to their insurance profile. It just couldn’t be easier to get a quote.”

According to Bisset, in the UK there is a burgeoning trend towards using internet aggregator sites to secure and evaluate online insurance quotes. Within six months of the launch of comparethemarket.com, a similar utility to Hippo.co.za, over 600 000 people utilised the site to source insurance.

“Insurance quote aggregator websites have gained considerable momentum abroad due to the speed and convenience with which they can deliver relevant, consolidated insurance quotes for comparison. It is estimated that about one third of insurance policies sold online are made via aggregator sites. Hippo.co.za is sure to follow this growing international trend.

“In general, there has been a massive increase in the number of insurance policies bought on the internet in this country and we believe that our numbers are not far off figures in the UK where six out of ten consumers have used the internet to purchase insurance.

“Hippo.co.za will certainly gain considerable momentum from the widening acceptance of the online insurance channel amongst South Africans,” says Bisset.

She concludes: “Hippo.co.za is sure to appeal to busy South Africans who are open to using technology to simplify their lives. It is the simplest, no fuss way to shop for insurance.