Source: Zhongbao Xinzh
For the first time, pet insurance appeared as a distinct coverage category in the interim reports of listed insurers.
For example, ZhongAn Insurance reported pet insurance premiums of 6.91 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-over-year increase of 22.7%, serving over 161 million pet owners. Ping An's pet insurance premiums reached 2.47 billion yuan, with a year-over-year growth rate as high as 113.2%. PICC has even integrated pet insurance into its unified "vehicle + person + home" sales system.
At the same time, two contrasting data points stand out: domestic pet insurance premiums surged from approximately ¥5000 million in 2020 to between ¥30 billion and ¥35 billion in 2025, representing a five-year growth of roughly 60 times. Meanwhile, as of the end of 2025, industry penetration rates remained stagnant between 1% and 3%.
Compared to mature markets like Hong Kong and overseas regions, the mainland pet insurance market remains in its early "land-grabbing" phase. What industry challenges lie behind this popularity without actual traction?
01
Supply Panorama
Product Matrix and Differentiation Strategies
From the perspective of institutional types, entities operating in the pet insurance market can be categorized into three groups: first, professional online insurers leveraging internet traffic advantages; second, large comprehensive property and casualty insurers utilizing traditional offline channels; and third, digital platforms such as Ant Insurance, WeSure, and JD Finance.
First, consider professional internet insurers, which are the core of online customer acquisition. Representative examples include ZhongAn Insurance and CPIC Property & Casualty.
Financial reports show that in 2025, Zhongan Pet Insurance's total premiums approached 12.96 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 88.2%. In the first half of 2026, premiums reached 6.91 billion yuan, up 22.7% year-over-year, serving over 161 million pet owners and partnering with approximately 1.8 thousand offline veterinary clinics.
During the 2026 Pet Fair, Zoant announced its full product lineup: Zhongchongbao Pet Medical Insurance, featuring 0 deductible, unlimited claims, and coverage for checkups, deworming, and vaccinations; Mengchong Kangai Bao, designed to address cancer risks in senior pets; China's first parrot-specific insurance; and Zhongchongbao Enterprise Edition, integrating pet medical coverage into employee benefits programs.
The second category includes traditional property and casualty insurance giants, which focus more on ecosystem development and offline networks. Key players include Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance, PICC Property and Casualty, China Life Property & Casualty Insurance, and Dadi Insurance.
Financial reports show that Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance's pet insurance premiums were approximately 2.4 billion yuan in 2025, with premium income reaching 2.47 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, representing a year-over-year growth of 113.2%.
Ping An Pet Care is a comprehensive coverage product that combines three core protections under one policy: pet accident and illness medical expenses (coverage up to 5 ten-thousand yuan), third-party medical liability (coverage up to 5 ten-thousand yuan), and third-party death or disability liability (coverage up to 15 ten-thousand yuan).
Additionally, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance has partnered with over 9000 designated pet hospitals and 6000 pet retail stores nationwide, offering integrated financial product bundles that link credit card transactions with pet insurance coverage.
Ping An Insurance Official Website
PICC Property and Casualty Company was an early mover in this sector, launching the nation's first pet health insurance product, PetCare Protection, in partnership with others as early as 2014. It now integrates pet insurance into its unified "vehicle + human + home" sales ecosystem.
The third category consists of internet platforms—such as Ant Insurance, WeSure, and JD Finance—which serve as the direct touchpoint for reaching users.
These platforms differ from insurers that directly assume underwriting liability. They function more like product showcase shelves for pet insurance and industry connection hubs.
Differentiation strategies among the players are now clear. ZhongAn focuses on product breadth, offering a comprehensive portfolio ranging from 0 deductible-free unlimited claims and cancer direct settlement to specialized coverage for exotic pets. Ping An emphasizes service breadth, leading the industry with its network of over 9000 designated hospitals.
Taiping Insurance focuses on lowering the entry barrier, adopting an accessible approach with simplified enrollment and enhanced claims. China United Property Insurance's Pet Care Plus bundles daily pet services—including vaccinations, deworming, and grooming—directly into the policy.
02
Market Real-Time
Behind the 60-fold surge in premiums
Supply-side product forms are diverse, driven fundamentally by rapid demand growth.
According to the "2026 China Pet Industry White Paper (Consumption Report)" released by PaiDu's Big Data Platform for the Pet Industry, total premiums for pet insurance in mainland China reached approximately 5000 ten thousand yuan in 2020, surging to between 30 billion and 35 billion yuan by 2025. In just five years, this figure increased roughly 60-fold. During the same period, the total number of urban dogs and cats exceeded 1.26 hundred million.
However, behind the significant industry growth, there are also some issues.
The larger the scale, the greater the loss.
Jimu News reported that pet insurance is one of the lines with the highest loss ratios in property-casualty insurance. Some channels have seen loss ratios exceeding 100%, and many insurers have incurred underwriting losses due to combined ratio over 100%.
Taking Zhongan Online as an example, its pet insurance business within the digital lifestyle ecosystem had a combined ratio of 99.9% in 2025 and 99.2% in the first half of 2026, nearly reaching the break-even point for underwriting profitability. With claim ratios for pet insurance typically higher than those in other property and casualty lines, the single-line combined ratio is likely to exceed 100%. (Note: Other companies do not publish separate loss ratios for pet insurance.)
The root cause lies in the lack of standardized diagnostic and treatment protocols in veterinary care, where costs for the same condition can vary by several times across different facilities. Since hospitals serve as both service providers and billing entities, there is an inherent incentive to over-treat, driving up claims costs for insurers.
Price wars driven by product homogenization
Mainland mainstream products are highly similar: one-year terms, monthly premiums of a few dozen yuan, waiting periods of about 30 days, 100% reimbursement at designated hospitals, and 40% at non-designated hospitals. When all insurers offer the same product, competition boils down to price wars and traffic battles.
Ant Insurance Platform
In contrast, the Hong Kong market boasts far richer product innovation. In 2026 7, OneDegree launched the city's first cash supplementary benefit for kidney failure, with an annual premium of HK630 after applying a 7.5-fold discount on the add-on fee. Coverage can be stacked up to HK12. The insurer also introduced Hong Kong's exclusive "Pet Mortgage Protection" insurance.
Prudential's exclusive "PawProtect" offers emergency pet boarding and up to HKD 300 million in third-party liability coverage. Mitsui Sumitomo's HappyTails covers specific hereditary and congenital conditions, with a no-claims discount of up to 15%.
Trust issues are draining the industry.
In the pet insurance market, claim denials and fraud cases are both surging. Zhang Yiqi, Head of Pet Insurance Operations at Ant Insurance, told media that while the definition of pre-existing conditions is being stretched indefinitely, fraudulent practices such as insuring sick pets and inflating medication costs persist. Non-standard medical treatments and fraud have consumed over 20% of product payout costs.
The core issue is insufficient infrastructure: pet microchip registration coverage nationwide remains critically low. This fragmentation of medical records across clinics and cities makes it difficult for insurers to verify past medical histories or detect fraud.
In 2025, 6, Ant Insurance, in collaboration with Nanjing Agricultural University, New RuiPeng, and RuiPai, among others, released pet diagnosis and treatment guidelines, providing a reference model for the market. After adopting these unified standards, partner hospitals saw the average cost per user consultation drop from 1830 yuan to 1448 yuan—a reduction of 21%.
If this medical insurance-linked model scales up, it could drive adoption rates more effectively than launching hit new products.
03
Beyond penetration rate
What are you actually competing for?
First, consider market penetration: the UK and Sweden reach 30%–40%, Hong Kong (China) is around 8%–10%, Japan is approximately 14%, Singapore ranges from 5% to 10%, South Korea stands at 2.1%, while mainland China lags significantly at just 1%–3%.
Penetration rate is just a surface metric. The real question is: what builds core competitiveness in high-penetration markets?
The pet insurance market in Hong Kong, China has established a clear product tiering system. It includes affordable medical coverage plans, adds protection for prevalent serious conditions such as kidney disease and cancer, and incorporates genetic disorder coverage along with high-limit liability protection.
High penetration rates of pet insurance in the UK and Sweden are driven by lifetime coverage models that guarantee benefits do not decrease due to aging or pre-existing conditions. For example, Sweden's Agria provides insurance for all dogs with no upper age limit.
Sweden Agria Insurance Company website
Most pet insurance products on the mainland focus on affordable, basic coverage, lacking protection for critical illnesses, chronic conditions, and hereditary diseases. This misaligns with pet owners' needs to manage high veterinary costs and concerns about major health issues.
South Korea's pet insurance penetration rate is also only around 2.1%, similar to mainland China's level, but its development path offers valuable insights.
MyBrown, South Korea's first pet-exclusive insurance provider, delivers a full-service ecosystem spanning product development to customer support. KakaoPay's pet insurance offers up to 4000 KRW in annual coverage and protection lasting up to 20 years, and includes a lost pet search service developed in partnership with animal rescue organizations.
These insurers share a common trait: they no longer sell only single pet insurance products, but instead build an all-in-one pet care service ecosystem. In contrast, most mainland insurers remain stuck at the stage of selling and processing individual policies, offering low value-added services.
In the domestic market, insurers are beginning similar initiatives. For example, Ping An has launched a comprehensive financial solution for the pet ecosystem, while ZhongAn's ZhongChongBao directly incorporates pet coverage into corporate welfare programs.
However, the true competitive focus of the industry requires deeper scrutiny: Can pet identity be uniquely verified? Can clinical practices be standardized? Can medical records be recognized across hospitals? And can claims data truly feed back to support product design?
Without these foundational capabilities, no amount of partner hospitals, additional services, or corporate welfare access can change the industry status quo of high claims, high complaints, and low penetration for pet insurance.
Therefore, the true value of Ant Insurance's clinical practice guidelines—established in collaboration with multiple institutions—is not merely a 21% reduction in single-visit costs. It is that, for the first time, verifiable clinical actions have become viable candidates for pricing standards.
The role of platforms also needs reevaluation. With A'ntian Bao, Weibao, and JD Finance controlling traffic and data interfaces, establishing industry-wide shared pet identity verification, cross-institutional treatment records, and anti-fraud rules would significantly reduce trust costs across the sector.
