“Insurance is among the products that promise exponential growth in the online environment in the upcoming years. (…) We’re running a promotional offer until the end of the year whereby all policies are 15% off. We’re targeting a 3-5% RCA market share in the first year,” eMAG.ro vice-president and development manager Radu Apostolescu said in a press release.
According to Romania’s insurance watchdog CSA, the RCA policy market stood at 2.49 billion lei (EUR573 million) in 2010, up 10.7% on the year.
Mandatory car insurance policies account for about 30% of the overall insurance market, which totaled RON8.31 billion in 2010.
“RCA insurance policies are currently at 35% of the overall market and near 85% in online insurance sales,” eMAG said in the release.
The website offers comparison tools for RCA policies available on the market and offers free delivery for online orders.
Launched in 2001 as an online IT and stationary store, eMag is now one of the largets online stores on the Romanian market. It is owned by Dante International, whose main shareholder is Asesoft Distribution – 51%, controlled by businessmen Iulian Stanciu and Sebastian Ghita. Other shareholders are Dan Teodosescu – 16.34%, Radu Apostolescu – 16.33%, Bogdan Marian Vlad -13.33% and Asesoft Web – 3%.
In 2010, Dante International posted sales of RON401.79 million, up 84.2% on the year, and a net profit of RON9.49 million, from RON151,737 the year before.
Netrisk Broker de Asigurare manages online insurance website www.asigura.ro, launched in 2001, and is the local subsidiary of Netrisk Hungary, the biggest insurance broker in Hungary. In July 2010, investment fund Entreprise Investors bought the majority stake in Netrisk Hungary.