Alibaba Health enters insurance business

The offshoots of e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd are setting up a joint venture with a major insurance company in China, tapping into the huge potential of the country's internet health insurance sector.

Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd said in an after-trade filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday that it has entered into an agreement with six other parties to establish a joint venture, which is to engage in internet health insurance related operations in China.

The joint venture company, which has a registered capital of 1 billion yuan ($154 million), is Alibaba's latest push into China's nascent but rapidly growing internet insurance sector.