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Could be some other motivation but Insurance is a complex business. There are licenses with state departments of insurance, technology partnerships and then car
by rubyfan 11y ago
Could be some other motivation but Insurance is a complex business. There are licenses with state departments of insurance, technology partnerships and then carrier partnerships.
Any carrier with existing strong independent agent channels are going to react to consumer comparison shopping with some caution. Carriers simply aren't going to jump right in bed with Google and put their best sales channel at risk.
As I understood it, Google was also asking for too much. They wanted special treatment and wanted to control much of the consumer experience even after the consumer purchases a policy with a carrier.
Google might have figured out the most lucrative part of the insurance shopping cycle is advertising which carriers can control the experience on without creating a downward spiral on market premiums. Google can easily profit in that space with far lower overhead and less disruption to carriers (i.e. the people who pay Google).
- tyingq 11y agoThis was a service that was up and running. They are also shutting down the entire tool, which was more than just insurance comparison. They have credit cards, mortgages, and maybe other products as well. And, you don't have be a licensed insurer to display a comparison widget and get paid for conversions...you can drive your margins higher if you have the license, but it's not needed.
- rubyfan 11y agoYes the shutter of the entire rest of the service is interesting. Though I can see an angle on why ads are still more profitable. In the case of their auto insurance quoting part of the business, they were doing something far more sophisticated than just generating leads for credit cards and mortgages. They were actually a licensed agent and generating commissions from quoting and issuing policies. Auto instance is highly regulated and they need to be licensed to do what they were doing. Three things at play here I see: 1. You are creating new market pressure on the companies that pay you. If companies offering these products stop paying you, then no one pays you. 2. The level of sophistication needed to operate a full quoting service is higher than one would imagine in insurance and I wouldn't be surprised with other financial products. 3. Just sell ads. It's relatively simple, unregulated (relative to financial products) and works in cooperation with (not against) the hand that feeds you.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- TheLogothete 11y agoPerhaps it is not as easy as you think.
- tyingq 11y agoEr, ok. It's up and working, right now. Since Google is able to ensure it's the only ad in the SERPS with pictures, and it sits in the top spot, well... I suspect the hard part is something other than making money on it. Maybe legal, anti-trust or other concerns?
- TheLogothete 11y agoHow do you know it's working?