Ping an Insurance is commonly known as “Ping an of China”. It a s China based holding conglomerate as its subsidiaries deal in banking, financial and insurance services. It was established in 1988 and has the headquarter in Shenzhen. Ping an of China devotedly works for becoming the world’s leading provider of financial services. It continuously promotes the development of its main finance, and internet finance businesses with the concept of “leading finance with technology and facilitating life with finance” and provide the experiences to make life easier with the expertise. It achieves the continuous growth in profit and successful in providing the stable returns to its shareholders (Ping an insurance, 2019).
Strategists in the Ping an insurance company can use the Porter five forces model to determine the competition level faced by the company. The model helps in understanding the situation and providing the solution to the issues related to the competitiveness in the industry. Porter’s five forces model is the framework provides assistance to the company in order to understand and analyse the industry in which they are operating in terms of competition level (Siaw, and Yu, 2004).
Here is the detailed Porter’ five forces analysis of Ping an Insurance Group;
Bargaining Power of Buyers
Strong bargaining power means firms have to provide high quality services in low prices, which eventually decreases the profitability level of the company. Ping an Insurance Group is operating in the industry from a long time, and it has a strong customer base. Individual customers do not make a big difference as the do not have any bargaining power. However, brokers and distributors have the bargaining power, and in such situation Ping an Insurance needs to lower down the prices to gain long term profit (Shao, 2015).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Capital suppliers like reinsurers, usually control cost structures of the external capital that could bring difficulties with the insurers. The supply chain of Ping an Insurance is efficient, which means it has numerous suppliers for the raw materials it requires. This means, bargaining power of suppliers is low, and Ping an Insurance can take advantage of it can use economies of scales, and hence earn the sustainable profits (Siaw, and Yu, 2004)
Threats of New Entrants
It is difficult to enter in the insurance industry because of high capitalization and regulations from the government of China. There are already many stable firms and banks in the insurance industry like Ping an insurance, it is difficult for the new entrants to compete directly with them. New entrants require strong brand name, which is expensive to develop because of the high costs involved. However, niche companies can enter in the industry like Life settlement companies which can buy the existing policies. In such cases, the prices of the Ping an insurance needs to be low to retain the consumers (Blueocean, 2019).
Threats from the Substitute Products
Due to high competition level in the industry, there are not much differentiated items or services in the market, and hence risk of switching to substitute products is high. Ping an Insurance Group needs to continuously invest in the research and development to bring new services for attracting consumers according to their demands, or risks losing out to the disruptors in industry. Ping an insurance can also take advantage of the cost leadership strategy, which will help in providing the good quality services to consumers in low prices, and hence the profit will be sustainable (Shao, 2015).
Rivalry of Existing Players
This is the major force in determining the profitability and competitive level of the industry. In the competitive industry, companies need to compete aggressively for market share, and this cause low profits. In the industry, if there are many rivals, competition become intense, barriers for exit will be high, there will be negative or slow business growth, and hence, products will not be differentiated and easily substituted. Insurance industry in China has many competitors, which makes it difficult for the Ping an Insurance group to earn sustainable revenues. It needs to lower down its rates in order to survive in the industry, and maintain its position (Blueocean, 2019).
References
Blue Ocean, 2019. Ping an Insurance Porter Five (5) Forces Analysis. [Online], Available at: http://blueoceanuniversity.com/frontpage/portercoanalysis/8329-ping-an-insurance, [Accessed on: 9th April, 2019].
Ping an Insurance Group, 2019. About PA. [Online], Available at: http://www.pingan.cn/en/about/index.shtml, [Accessed on: 9th April, 2019].
SHAO, S.H., 2015. Competitive strategies and porter’s five forces model by the insurance companies in Kenya.
Siaw, I. and Yu, A., 2004. An analysis of the impact of the internet on competition in the banking industry, using Porter’s five forces model. International Journal of Management, 21(4), p.514