There are about 15 to 20 million Filipinos looking for insurance and banking products but don’t know which to choose. This is according to the research of GoBear, a free financial comparison site.
“The biggest banks here do not even have responsive websites whereas most people, or 60 percent, do search on through their mobile,” revealed GoBear founder and CEO Andre Hesselink.
“This is completely disconnect to what customers want and what traditional providers give to customers,” added Hesselink. “In that gap, I think we can fulfill the customers’ needs very well.”
Thus, the Asia’s first and only metasearch engine for financial comparison recently launched in the Philippines to help Filipinos make wise decisions in choosing the right financial products that will suit them through their computers or mobile phones.
“We are proud to represent a brand that is giving a power of choice to Filipino people and making sure that we have the wise decision for our financial problems,” enthused GoBear Philippines Country Director Rommel Torres.
The Singapore-based company is unique in its own because it serves as an information platform that does not sell anything. It claims to be transparent and personalized.
Filipinos now have the freedom to choose the right travel insurances, credit cards and personal loans without worries. GoBear works in three easy steps: Search, Compare and Select.
“We serve customers if we help them find what they are looking for in this particular industry,” Hesselink told Manila Standard.
During the launch, Hesselink related how the idea of GoBear was born out of his personal experience when he tried to find the right car insurance for his car online. He had to go through a long process, answering irrelevant questions, but then failed at the end.
“At that point I thought with technology of today this can be done much easier and faster. And then we can help customers, so with that idea in mind, I went back to one of the shareholders I was working for in Singapore and I presented the idea, and he liked it,” recounted Hesselink.
GoBear Philippines also introduced husband-and-wife Drew and Iya-Villania Arellano as its celebrity influencers.
By the end of the year, the local GoBear team hopes to have at least 100,000 visitors using the website every week.
GoBear will also launch in Hong Kong by the end of August and in Vietnam in November 2016. – Michelle Buencamino
