Insurance comparison site Hippo.co.za says it has reached a user-base milestone, garnering two million users, after adding a range of new products and services, including a fibre comparison service.
The comparison engine is taking on local fibre comparison competitors such as Chameleon Fibre,Fibre Tiger and Fibre Compare with its latest offering for customers looking for better price, speed and value when it comes to fibre Internet connection.
The new service offers multiple quotes to compare packages of 14 of SA’s major fibre providers, including Vodacom, MWeb, Telkom, Vox Telecoms, Bitco and Home Connect.
Established as Hippo Comparative Service in 2007, the online comparison platform introduced different product verticals and partners over the years as the company expanded its offerings to broaden its scope in the market, as a digital business.
The online comparison Web site started with short-term insurance comparisons and expanded to add six additional verticals and 68 service providers across home and vehicle insurance, health insurance, life cover, financial services, travel packages, and vehicle finance and telematics solutions.
Bradley Du Chenne, CEO of Hippo.co.za, says now more than ever, South Africans are shopping online – a trend that is driving a rising need for online price comparison services, as more locals look to purchase multiple insurance and connectivity offerings, amid the COVID-19 crisis.
“The financial fallout of COVID-19 has been huge, and most consumers have become more price- and value-sensitive. This is coupled with the general state of people re-evaluating what’s important to them in this post-COVID reality.
“We’re seeing an increase in visitors to Hippo.co.za comparing costs and weighing up their options. Customers want to know they are getting the best deal and they will either invest a lot of time and energy to contact individual suppliers themselves, or they visit Hippo for unbiased comparison while shopping online,’’ notes Du Chenne.
Hippo says it charges its partners a fee when a customer chooses to find out more about their products. The results consumers see, and the order in which they are presented, are in no way influenced by the fee Hippo.co.za charges its partners, or any other factors other than the price of the product being compared.
The latest move to introduce a fibre comparison service comes as more South Africans rely on digital services as remote working reshapes the new world of work, comments Du Chenne.
“The fibre comparison service was an important move for us as we are essentially a digital business and it was a good fit in order to assist consumers who are looking for better price and value when it comes to Internet connectivity.
“We are also still exploring ways to enhance our latest Internet offering, so we are likely to extend this option to include devices that enable connectivity. Soon, we will be adding value-add services in the form of tools and calculators that can help improve the consumer’s decision-making process even further.”
The price seen on the Hippo Web site is the same as the price going directly to the insurer.
“Hippo.co.za works with a wide variety of trusted partners to provide its service. These include more than 68 South African service providers: the likes of iWyze, King Price, Budget Insurance, Discovery Health, Momentum, Direct Axis, DialDirect and Medihelp. We get an average of 25 000 new visitors monthly, of which between 13 000 and 16 000 actively engage and complete the comparison and quoting journey.”
The company says it has seen its total Web site conversations increase by 12.9% year-on-year from 1 January to 30 November.
The platform’s verticals are growing at different rates, according to Du Chenne, with financial services (86.9% ) seeing the fastest growth rate, followed by travel (28.9%), insurance (18.2%), life cover (13.1%), health (5.8%) and vehicle insurance comparison (1.5%).
“However, the car insurance is still our most popular vertical. It can be expensive and is largely viewed as a grudge purchase, so consumers want to find the best value for money.
“During lockdown we have seen an increase of 56.07% in overall users. Part of this is due to Hippo giving consumers the freedom to compare the market at their own convenience. Many customers switched from more traditional distribution options like brokers who include commission fees in their cost, and insurers where they only deal with call centres as part of the user experience with no option to do quotes online,” he explains.
Looking to the future, Hippo says it is in talks with its insurance partners to offer products more aligned to people’s lifestyles following the impact of COVID-19, and is also looking to add more big local insurance partners to the platform.
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