Google Wants to Sell You Auto Insurance
4:01 pm ET Jan 8, 2015
Google Wants to Sell You Auto Insurance
By Rolfe Winkler
Google is plotting a move into auto insurance in the
U.S., including a comparison-shopping site from which users would also be able
to buy policies, an industry analyst says.
Forrester Research analyst Ellen Carney wrote in a blog
post Wednesday that an entity called Google Compare Auto Insurance Services is
licensed to sell insurance in 26 states and is authorized to sell policies in
at least one state on behalf of six insurers, including MetLife, Mercury and
Viking Insurance of Wisconsin.
Moreover, a Google executive recently won authorization
to sell insurance through Google Compare as well as through San Francisco
auto-insurance comparison site CoverHound, suggesting the two companies are
working together.
Google already provides auto and travel-insurance quotes
in the U.K., as well as mortgage quotes, and even credit cards.
The moves suggest the search giant wants to offer similar
services in the U.S., potentially displacing existing middlemen, as it has done
in shopping and travel. Google provides its own product-search tools on the
Google Shopping website, and increasingly offers specialized flight and hotel
booking tools.
A Google spokeswoman said in a statement “We can’t
comment on speculation. Don’t fault us, though; we enjoy your coverage.”
Greg Isaacs, president of Insurance Solutions at
CoverHound, confirmed that Google’s Meredith Stechbart is endorsed on his
company’s insurance license, but declined to specify how the two companies are
working together. “We haven’t been acquired,” he said.
Google’s moves to offer more services directly are
potentially risky, because online middlemen like Priceline and Expedia are also
big Google advertisers. But such moves can save users clicks and could bring
Google revenue through commissions.
In insurance, companies such as esurance and Progressive
allow users to compare their own policies with others’.
Carney says Google has been working on the insurance
offering for more than two years. In part, that reflects the state-by-state
regulation of insurance in the U.S. In Idaho, for instance, Google Compare is
licensed to sell insurance on behalf of three different carriers.
Carney says Google may also face resistance from
insurance companies that are reluctant to share information that could help
Google compete with them someday.
Google has faced similar challenges in shopping. Google
has spoken to retailers about the prospect of adding a “buy” button so that
consumers can buy products direct from Google pages. But some retailers have
pushed back, fearing they would end up in brutal competition with one another
on a Google page they don’t control.
The mobile revolution is putting more pressure on Google
to build up “vertical” search engines for specific categories, since smartphone
users are being trained, for instance, to go direct to Amazon’s app to buy
products, or Expedia’s app to book a flight or a hotel room. If Google doesn’t
provide more efficient services that cater to particular types of searches, it
risks being cut out itself.
– Lisa Fleisher contributed to this article.
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