The internet of the web gives way to the internet of things and so, without realizing it and by surprise, the internet of value arrives.

Technology has become a transversal resource in the world of the company, in the insurance sector, and this is motivating the emergence of ambitious challenges and initiatives in the field of innovation.

The management of information, both in large-scale volumes (Big Data), and in small-scale (Small Data), together with business intelligence practices (Business intelligence) are on the table in the strategies of companies to massively reach the consumer in all areas. The increasingly diverse and widespread habitat around virtual communities, together with the great penetration of mobile devices in society, make the circle of the internet, social networks, mobile devices, data and consumers close around a perfect storm originating a new market model paradigm.

Embracing technology and people through the use of utensils from our daily environment brings us closer to the concept of "internet of things" IoT, and thus the world of sensors is penetrating through mobile phones, vehicles, clothing, home automation, pets , ... invading our privacy and privacy in exchange for benefits such as more security in our home, prevention in health, a control in my habits as a driver, or that Boby does not go to a Can Party without permission, for example. And all this to the world of insurance interests you and gives you the chance to be sexier.

The Insurtech phenomenon has broken into the reality of the insurance industry proposing a cocktail of insurance and technology that provides lyrics, music and rhythm to this celebration of "welcome to the future of insurance" in which we all want to dance close to the new consumer. It is still not clear what is the ideal ratio of insurance and technology that this cocktail has to carry and less how much premium the components must be.

Insurers betting on startups that bring technological innovation as a dominant part of the cocktail, or, why not, insurers that provide an innovative vision of insurance that relies on technology in which wearing a tie is not yet a mortal sin. In this binomial, can the insurer be the startup? Will it be very disruptive to think that?

In November 2008 someone, who even today is not clear if it is one or more people, Satoshi Nakamoto, posted on the internet a document of not many pages that among things prophesied that  "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution." [- A peer-to-peer application of electronic payment would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution -] and "left there" the keys to organize information in blockchains with the intention of putting the world financial order in check through a virtual currency. Today, more than a decade later, blockchain brings us all upside down to see how disruptive and innovative we are. On the technological horizon there is an inscription that reads “Blockchain” from which some labels that speak of digital identity, security, consensus, immutability, transparency, ... hang; and you have to see how we get on a train, boat, plane or cart that takes us there.

The internet web gives way to the internet of things and so, without realizing it and surprise, the internet value in which the mathematical algorithms and cryptography threaten to seize the throne of regulatory power to states and financial institutions arrives ; A booklet entitled "The democratization of the internet" is signed by those who have written the algorithms.

But the reality is that as much as Stanley Kubrick tried hard to imagine in 1968 a 2001 with Hal doing his thing, we are already in 2018 and there is nothing that beats a good plate of Joselito accompanied by a glass of Vega Sicilia. Or not?

Higinio Iglesias
CEO of ebroker

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