Shinhan Life to Set Up Affiliate that Provides Home Training Contents with AI Startup
Partners with IPIXEL and Chang Healthcare to develop and upgrade the healthcare business
The digital healthcare platform Howfit helps users exercise well with analyses of their moves by artificial intelligence using a smartphone without additional equipment. (Photo: IPIXEL)
Shinhan Life is leading the development of new services as a general healthcare company of Shinhan Financial Group by providing related information to the group¡¯s affiliates.
The company is planning to establish a healthcare subsidiary that provides independent home training contents, in the first move of its kind among Korean insurance companies.
Shinhan Life plans to launch a healthcare subsidiary by the end of November to expand and reorganize the Howfit service being provided with artificial intelligence startup IPIXEL.
Howfit is a platform that provides home training contents in partnership with influencers based on AI motion recognition technology.
By introducing AI and augmented reality technologies, it implements realistic and immersive services so that users feel as if they were actually working out with health trainers.
Shinhan Life hired more than 10 professionals, and ordered them to work in the Howfit business.
They were placed in the field of marketing, design, and content design alone. ¡°We will focus on diversifying Howfit¡¯s contents and improving its service quality,¡± a Shinhan Life official said.
The Howfit service will also be linked to Shinhan Life Insurance products. Shinhan Life also developed healthcare products that measure customer health, and makes good use of it by calculating insurance premiums.
In July, it acquired the exclusive right to use health age insurance premiums which discounts insurance premiums if a customer¡¯s health age is lower than his or her actual age.
Shinhan Life plans to try new types of healthcare businesses, such as recommending customized nutritional supplements.
In addition to its own platforms such as Howfit, it opened Healthcare Room at the Shinhan Life Gangnam Center with CJ CheilJedang. Healthcare Room recommends suitable nutritional supplements based on customers¡¯ health information.
It is also planning to expand data in healthcare-related sectors through MyData technology. The move is aimed at using it as a stepping stone to provide customized healthcare services to customers.
Shinhan Life is participating as a provider of a MyData service in the medical sector of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Services such as the preemptive detection of breast cancer during medical checkups for employees will be tentatively introduced in concert with Lunit, an AI health diagnosis solution company.
Like the Howfit case, Shinhan Life will continue to employee a strategy to cooperate with healthcare startups through Future Lab, Shinhan Financial Group¡¯s startup support program.
Meanwhile, Shinhan Life announced on Sept. 9 that it signed a strategic business agreement with Chang Healthcare, a healthcare service company at its headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul on Sept. 8.
Chang Healthcare was established in 2012. The healthcare company provides healthcare services for corporate executives and employees, medical support services for people with diseases such as chronic diseases, and personal health records management services linked to health checkups.
Under this strategic business deal, the two companies will connect their healthcare businesses, develop and carry out new healthcare businesses and secure health data and analyze disease and symptoms among other collaborations.
The business agreement was made with an investment of 5 billion won from One Shinhan Connect New Technology Investment Association No. 1 Fund under Shinhan Capital¡¯s management.
The first digital strategic investment fund in Korea, was created with Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung¡¯s strong will to build a differentiated digital ecosystem that only Shinhan can create.
¡°In the past, insurance companies focused on paying insurance money after a customer¡¯s death,¡± a Shinhan Life official said. ¡°These days, they are gradually expanding into health management.
Through this agreement, Shinhan Life will provide more valuable products and services to customers as a full-care service provider.¡±
Shinhan Life provides a variety of healthcare services. A lot of efforts are being made by Shinhan Life to expand public benefits using medical information through participation in the Busan Eco Delta Smart City Demonstration Project and the Medical MyData Demonstration Project.