Google Strengthens Its Grasp On The Insurance Industry

Ever since the acquisition of BeatThatQuote in the UK in 2012 there has been rumors of Google entering the insurance industry. I looked into this subject myself almost a year ago, and concluded that is not a question of whether Google is going to take a position in the future value chain for the insurance industry, but which position Google wants to take, and how this will affect incumbents. Earlier this year, Forrester analyst Ellen Carney also uncovered that Google had filed for a license to sell insurance in half the states in the US market earlier this jyesr.

Confirming these rumors, Google finally announced that they will launch Google Compare for Auto Insurance, a comparison and insurance shopping site directly tied to your search words.

This makes perfectly sense for Google as they have in collaboration with BCG India predicted that 75 percent of all insurance purchases will be online by 2020. In most cases this customer journey begins with a Google search, and already insurers are paying up to $54 per click for car insurance quote searches. With a comparison service based on cost-per-acquisition (CPA) this is surely a major step towards a strengthened position in the financial services value chain.