Comparethemarket was huge when I left the UK and I will bet there is not a soul there who doesn't know who Alexksandr the Russian meerkat is. So, I was amazed when I arrived in Australia in 2010 to no Alexksandr - he followed me very shortly as the company has just celebrated 10 years of operations down under.
I didn't realise that Comparethemarket.com.au is owned by South African owned Auto & General although Stephen Zeller GM of General insurance explained that they operate independently as a separate entity. The company offers comparisons of many different verticals as they call them. Car insurance is one of the biggest, there's also home, health and travel insurance as well as utilities and home loan comparisons.
Over in the UK around 98% of all the insurance companies are on Comparethemarket, here they have 11 brands and there are some intriguing ones that are new and tech savvy. As well as Budget Direct, Virgin Money and Woolworths there is the very newly established pay by km product Koba (underwritten by Eric) which uses telematics as does Carpeesh (underwritten by RAC) which rewards careful drivers with lower premiums, especially appealing to (sensible) younger drivers.
Huddle, founded in 2016, has a mission to make insurance simple for everyone. Although they do employ people to look after their customers via their call centre, Huddle uses artificial intelligence to help customers with their applications and processing claims 24/7, 'sometimes you’ll receive a decision within minutes'. Huddle is backed by Hollard and 70% of its claims are approved on the spot - you can even opt for 'kanga cover'. Stella (only 18 months old and underwritten by QBE) and 1st for Women are aimed - you guessed it - at women.
The comparison market was very immature when Comparethemarket launched in 2012 with really only ISelect and later Canstar on offer.
"We'd love to have every insurer in Australia on here, and I encourage them to reach out and find out why it will benefit them." Zeller says.
The comparison software is very fast. "We know that people are time poor, they don't want to put their details into multiple websites and wait for quotes."
Comparethemarket has seen 31% growth over the last five years. They had 1.8 million visitors looking for car insurance quotes on their website last year - that's a significant chunk of the driving public.
"Slowly but surely we are becoming top of mind when people are renewing their insurance and we will continue to build on that trust and grow." Zeller says.