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PulseReporter > Blog > Money > Ping An needs to show China’s demographic disaster into a chance to showcase a ‘silver future’
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Ping An needs to show China’s demographic disaster into a chance to showcase a ‘silver future’

Pulse Reporter
Last updated: July 29, 2025 9:38 am
Pulse Reporter 12 hours ago
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Ping An needs to show China’s demographic disaster into a chance to showcase a ‘silver future’
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Excessive up Shenzhen’s Ping An Finance Heart—the world’s fifth-tallest skyscraper—is a modest one-bedroom demo house. It’s well-furnished, neatly designed, and wouldn’t be misplaced in considered one of China’s high cities.

However the ground area and furnishings aren’t what’s most fascinating in regards to the flat. There are sensors within the ceiling, meant to routinely detect when an occupant has fallen. A show within the mirror exhibits important indicators recorded in a single day. A contact display offers a direct connection to a concierge, portrayed by an AI-generated avatar of a younger lady.

The house is a part of Ping An’s bid for the “silver economic system,” centered on serving to retirees on the lookout for well being care, schooling, and leisure. The insurer is focusing on China’s aged, whose numbers will quickly rival the whole U.S. inhabitants.

“Individuals who don’t have ample monetary assets can depend on the federal government. Individuals who desire a bit extra can select Ping An,” says Michael Guo, Ping An’s co-CEO and the person accountable for its well being care and eldercare technique.

One in all China’s largest personal firms, Ping An is making its bid for well being care at an opportune time. China is quickly getting older as beginning charges plummet. 20 years in the past, China’s median age was 32; now, it’s simply previous 40. Most discussions of China’s demographic disaster give attention to the draw back: a steep decline in China’s working-age inhabitants, the supply of the nation’s manufacturing and financial growth.

However China’s demographic transition is simply a disaster for some. The silver economic system—centered on a fast-growing, newly rich, newly curious, and newly impartial cohort over age 50—could possibly be value billions to firms like Ping An which are attempting to mix expertise and good design to serve an getting older society.

“Should you didn’t adapt to the altering nature of your inhabitants, you’re going to be left behind,” says Stuart Gietel-Basten, a demography professional on the Hong Kong College of Science and Expertise. “It’s a pure shift within the inhabitants construction, and if you happen to stored doing the whole lot the identical, you’d be an fool.”

As the remainder of the world ages, Ping An’s—and China’s—expertise may present how a silver future may work.


With 242 million retail clients, Ping An, based in 1988, dwarfs the U.S.’s largest insurance coverage firm, UnitedHealth Group, and its 152 million shoppers. Most of Ping An’s enterprise is insurance coverage—property, auto, well being, and so forth—but it surely additionally owns one of many nation’s largest banks, Ping An Financial institution, and a U.S.-listed fintech platform, OneConnect.

Ping An’s rise in income: 8%
Ping An Insurance coverage introduced in a reported $158.6 billion in income in 2024, serving to it leap six spots to No. 47 on this yr’s International 500.

Ping An Insurance coverage, the group’s publicly listed arm, reported $158.6 billion in income final yr, a virtually 8.8% rise from the yr earlier than. That places it at No. 47 on this yr’s International 500, leaping six spots from final yr. Ping An can also be the second-highest-ranked personal Chinese language firm on the listing, behind e-commerce big JD.com however forward of different family names like Alibaba and Tencent.

Guo joined Ping An in 2019 from Boston Consulting Group, the place he was a managing director and companion. He served as Ping An’s chief human assets officer and headed up its property and casualty insurance coverage enterprise earlier than rising to co-CEO in 2023, now working alongside co-CEO Xie Yonglin.

China has been a tough place to do enterprise since Guo joined six years in the past. After COVID got here a quick crackdown on China’s tech sector, and the collapse of the nation’s property bubble dragged down each inventory markets and family consumption. Ping An’s income declined by 9% in 2022, then by nearly 20% the next yr.

Nonetheless, Guo is optimistic that Ping An, and China, have turned a nook. “We’ve completed a big quantity of labor de-risking a few of our portfolios associated to the Chinese language macroeconomy,” he stated, pointing to Chinese language shares and property, including that bettering optimism over the Chinese language economic system because of robust inventory market efficiency additionally helped.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s international commerce battle, which locations 55% tariffs on China, threatens to complicate issues once more. Ping An generates nearly all of its income in China, whether or not on the mainland or within the Chinese language metropolis of Hong Kong. But the corporate’s asset portfolio is international, that means it’s uncovered to international macroeconomic shifts. (For instance: Ping An is considered one of HSBC’s largest shareholders.)

Which means the commerce battle is an issue for Ping An. “Once we make investments abroad, we now have to consider which international locations and industries are going to carry out within the subsequent 5 to 10 years. Once we make investments domestically, we take into consideration which industries or areas will likely be impacted by the tariffs,” Guo explains.

And if China’s economic system does get dragged down by Trump’s tariffs, that may rebound on Ping An. “We depend on Chinese language individuals to purchase our insurance coverage insurance policies, to financial institution with us, to purchase bank cards, and so forth,” he provides. “In the event that they don’t have steady jobs, they make much less cash or they’re extra pessimistic in regards to the future; that may impression how they work together with monetary establishments.”


Guo is now answerable for Ping An’s “well being care and aged care” technique and its expertise endeavors, placing him on the forefront of what he calls the corporate’s “subsequent section of development.”

Ping An’s well being care enterprise is small in contrast with the broader group, producing simply $680 million in income final yr. Senior care providers delivered simply $39 million in gross sales—and that’s after a 400% enhance. However Ping An plans to leverage its broader buyer base, funneling its hundreds of thousands of medical health insurance clients to its well being care and eldercare providers, supercharged by its decades-long funding in AI. It’s a profitable alternative, if it really works.

China’s inhabitants has shrunk by about 4 million since 2021. The charges of recent births and marriages have additionally plummeted. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs estimates the nation’s aged inhabitants will develop by about 10 million a yr over the subsequent decade.

Beijing is scrambling: By 2021, it had eliminated all household planning restrictions, together with the notorious “one little one coverage.” Native Chinese language governments now supply money incentives as excessive as $14,000 to encourage individuals to have youngsters.

China’s social security web is underdeveloped for its sizable economic system. Simply over a billion persons are enrolled in a state-managed primary pension, but payouts will be as little as beneath $25 a month.
Company pensions are uncommon, and personal pension accounts are simply getting off the bottom. In 2019, the Chinese language Academy of Social Sciences warned that China’s state pension fund risked working out of cash by 2035.

Beijing is fidgeting with coverage on the older finish of the age spectrum. Final yr, it hiked the retirement age: 63 for males; 58 and 55 for ladies in white-collar and blue-collar jobs, respectively.

Companies are already adapting to a China with fewer employees and extra DINKs (double earnings, no youngsters). Some markets, like pet care, are booming, whereas others, like dairy, are an unsure future.

A part of that shift is the silver economic system: items and providers focusing on China’s rising aged inhabitants, coupled with extra alternatives to proceed working into previous age.

“The Chinese language authorities is attempting its easiest to supply a layer ov social welfare and senior care services,” Guo says, including that it doesn’t have the monetary power to guarantee that protection is deep sufficient. As an alternative, the federal government is targeted on guaranteeing that everybody has not less than some protection.

“Should you take a look at the 50-year-olds of at the moment, they’re fully totally different from the 50-year-olds of 30 years go.”
STUART GIETEL-BASTEN, PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY, THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

However that’s not adequate for China’s middle-class households, who’ve constructed up household wealth within the many years because the nation opened up its economic system. “There’s a mismatch between what’s obtainable offered by the federal government and what’s demanded by middle-class customers and households. And that is the place we see alternatives for Ping An to bridge the hole,” Guo explains

It’s a profitable hole: Chinese language officers predict the silver economic system may develop to 30 trillion yuan ($4.2 trillion) by 2035.

Gietel-Basten doesn’t assume that China’s declining inhabitants essentially spells doom. “Should you take a look at the 50-year-olds of at the moment, they’re fully totally different from the 50-yearolds of 30 years in the past,” he explains. “That is what we name ‘demographic metabolism’ of populations: getting older and smaller, but in addition more healthy, extra educated, extra expert.”


Ping An isn’t the one insurer betting on a wave of aged clients. AIA, No. 417 on the International 500, can also be bullish on the silver economic system, constructing new merchandise like wealth administration, wellness packages, and residential take care of it.

Li Dou, who heads Ping An Well being, explains that there’s a “90-7-3” distribution in the case of getting older in China: 90% age at residence, 7% get community-based care, and three% go to devoted senior care services.

Even higher with age: Chief of Ping An Well being Li Dou sees alternative
in China’s quickly getting older
inhabitants.

Qilai Shen/Panos Footage for Fortune

He factors to a couple distinct buyer segments—those that dwell alone in China’s second or third-tier cities, after their youngsters moved to extra economically vibrant cities; “early seniors” in early retirement now free to journey and hunt down new experiences; and the 80-plus crowd who want extra fixed care.

Due to its insurance coverage enterprise, Ping An already has entry to an unlimited community of hospitals, pharmacies, and residential care teams. However the insurance coverage big now owns a number of dozen well being establishments all through the nation as properly, together with six tertiary hospitals. It’s additionally constructing out a number of “alliances” past simply medical providers to assist the silver economic system.

For instance, Ping An now collaborates with universities to supply instructional lectures to its clients who, Li says, lacked alternatives for a high-quality schooling of their youth. It’s additionally organising package deal excursions with cultural itineraries, health-conscious meals, and accommodations designed particularly for older vacationers.

This give attention to leisure fits the subsequent era who, because of having smaller households, have much more wealth to spend on themselves. “The following silver era don’t have grandchildren, don’t have youngsters— they’ll put extra assets into themselves and search for alternatives to study issues, volunteer, and even get again to work,” says Dicky Chow, head of well being care at assume tank Our Hong Kong Basis.

Nonetheless, well being is an costly enterprise. Ping An Well being made a slim $12 million revenue final yr, its first since being established in 2014. The corporate misplaced $46 million in 2023.

“It requires lots of capital to amass well being care and senior care suppliers. You’ll want to construct senior care communities, and it’s very time-consuming to finish such tasks and construct up a model within the well being and senior care enterprise,” explains Iris Tan, an analyst at Morningstar.

However Ping An’s bid for the silver economic system is underpinned by a decade-long wager on AI, which it’s poured billions of {dollars} into, even earlier than OpenAI’s ChatGPT pressured each firm to undertake the brand new expertise.

Its AI applied sciences embrace a fraud detection instrument and software program that may generate a synthetic voice from only a few real-world samples. Others are extra religious, like a Buddhist chatbot accessible to Ping An workers, “which may discuss to you identical to a monk,” says Xiao Jing, Ping An’s chief scientist. “It’s extremely reliable.”

Getting older with AI: Ping An is leaning into AI for the aged with the assistance of chief scientist Xiao Jing.

Anthony Kwan for Fortune

And Ping An is leaning into AI for the aged. Xiao means that AI is best suited to middle-aged and older customers, who may recognize the selection of AI-generated voices and avatars, whether or not it’s a voice and look that reminds them of their grandchild or an avatar resembling their professor.

And the subsequent era of aged individuals gained’t be strangers to digital expertise, Chow says: “Within the subsequent 10 to twenty years, there’s going to be a drastic shift [in digital literacy].”


Beijing isn’t the one authorities grappling with a demographic disaster. Japan’s inhabitants has been shrinking since 2010, forcing the federal government to contemplate robotics and automation as a approach to take care of its getting older inhabitants. South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility price, main native governments to contemplate drastic measures like government-endorsed matchmaking providers.

The U.S., too, could have its personal getting older issues. The U.S.’s complete fertility price is at 1.6, a document low,
and hasn’t been above 2.1, the so-called alternative price, because the early ’90s. The Inhabitants Reference Bureau tasks that 82 million Individuals will likely be over the age of 65 by 2050, almost 1 / 4 of the inhabitants.

China’s demographic decline is usually introduced as a long-term danger, however may it as a substitute show a chance? If China— which is going through a a lot bigger aged inhabitants with far fewer assets— can develop a vibrant silver economic system, may different international locations do the identical?

The world’s second-largest economic system is barreling forward on automation, making use of industrial robots to its manufacturing sector to make up for scarcer, costlier—and shortly rarer—employees. AI, too, may assist present take care of seniors with out dedicating lots of individuals to run well being concierges and administer assessments.

In that case, China’s demographic disaster could show to be extra alternative than disaster.

This text seems within the August/September 2025: Asia problem of Fortune with the headline “Ping An’s subsequent frontier: China’s ‘Silver Economic system.’”

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