An insurance company in China is looking to shake up the country’s chicken supply chain — using blockchain technology.
中国一家保险公司正在寻求利用区块链技术来撼动中国鸡肉供应链。

ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance, launched in 2014 with the backing of Alibaba payments affiliate Ant Financial, Tencent and Ping An Insurance, quickly grabbed attention with peculiar products such as a “binge drinking” policy that paid out if Chinese fans got drunk during football matches and suffered alcohol poisoning.
众安在线财产保险股份有限公司（Zhong An Online Property and Casualty Insurance，简称众安保险）创办于2013年，由阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的支付关联公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)、腾讯(Tencent)和平安保险(Ping An Insurance)出资创办，凭借“喝高”险（如果购买该保险的中国球迷在观看足球比赛时喝醉并发生酒精中毒，该保险将进行赔付）等特殊产品迅速抓住眼球。

The company’s assets have ballooned since, more than doubling in 2017 to Rmb21.2bn ($3.3bn), its annual report showed this week.
该公司的资产自创办起迅速增加。根据众安保险本周公布的年报，2017年其资产总额同比增长超过一倍，达到212亿元人民币（合33亿美元）。

Last year the online-only insurer raised $1.5bn in a Hong Kong listing that was the world’s first “insurtech” public offering and attracted Japan’s SoftBank as a cornerstone investor. Insurtech companies try to use technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to simplify insurance products and make them more accessible.
去年，这家只有线上平台的保险商在香港上市融资15亿美元，成为全世界首支公开发行的“保险科技”股，吸引了日本软银(SoftBank)成为基石投资者。许多保险科技公司都试图利用人工智能和区块链等技术来简化保险产品，使之更平易近人。

Like many groups in China, ZhongAn has rapidly diversified away from its original business. One of its latest projects, GoGo Chicken, takes aim at China’s chicken supply chain — a trial run before ZhongAn eventually rolls out the technology to other applications.
正如中国很多企业一样，众安保险迅速在原有业务之外实现多元化发展。其最新项目之一“步步鸡”(GoGo Chicken)瞄准了中国的鸡肉供应链——这是众安保险最终把该技术推广至其他用途之前的一次试验。

The company uses tracking devices and facial recognition technology to follow the movement of free-range chickens, from hatching to packaging, on hundreds of farms across China. Poultry are fitted with tracking devices on their legs and the data are logged using a blockchain ledger — an unalterable record that underlies cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
该公司利用跟踪设备和面部识别技术来追踪中国各地数百家农场饲养的走地鸡从鸡苗到上市售卖的全过程。步步鸡的腿上装有跟踪设备，利用区块链账簿记录数据。区块链账簿的记录无法更改，构成了比特币等加密货币的基础。

Customers can download an application on to their smartphones that allows them to track a chicken’s route to the supermarket, and provides access to the bird’s life history along with charts showing its level of activity.
在智能手机上下载应用后，顾客就能在应用中查看步步鸡从农场到超市的全部历程，并通过显示其活动水平的图表来了解这只鸡的成长轨迹。

Using an incorruptible blockchain record to track the origin of food in China could help address some of the country’s perennial food safety problems, said Francis Tang, ZhongAn’s chief financial officer. China has been repeatedly rocked by scandals in which dangerous food products have made it on to supermarket shelves.
众安保险首席财务官Francis Tang表示，在中国，利用无法造假的区块链记录来追踪食物来源，有助于解决一些食品安全顽疾。中国已经多次受到危害人体的食品出现在超市货架上的丑闻冲击。

“They [the farmers] want to sell these free-range chickens at a higher price but a lot of people don’t know if this is really a free-range chicken,” Mr Tang said.
Francis Tang称，“他们（农户）希望以高一些的价格出售走地鸡，但很多人不知道自己看到的是不是真的走地鸡。”

ZhongAn’s technology, said Mr Tang, “shows you exactly where it [a chicken] has been” and whether hormones or other harmful elements have been introduced along the way.
他表示，众安保险的技术“向你展示它（鸡）的准确生长过程”，以及在这一过程中是否使用激素或其他有害物质。

The company’s foray into China’s food supply chain underlines the nature of ZhongAn: it has always considered itself a tech company first and insurance group second.
该公司进军中国食品供应链的举动，突显了众安保险的本质：它始终首先认为自己是一家科技公司，其次才是保险公司。

Analysts have expressed scepticism about ZhongAn’s insurance business. The company this week posted a net loss of about Rmb1bn for 2017, which management blamed on regulations requiring it to set aside reserves for a growing pool of longer-term products.
分析人士对众安的保险业务表示了疑虑。该公司本周公布的年报显示，其2017年净亏损约10亿元人民币，管理层把亏损原因归咎于其长期业务比例增加，应监管部门要求计提的未到期责任准备金也相应增加。

The company sold 5.3bn policies last year to 432m customers, roughly a third of China’s population, solely via online distribution — an unheard of achievement for a traditional insurer. But to distribute its products the company is highly reliant on partnerships with other online companies, whose fees have eroded the thin margins on ZhongAn’s low-cost policies
去年，该公司完全通过线上渠道向4.32亿客户（约为中国人口的三分之一）出售了53亿份保单——这对于传统保险商而言是前所未闻的成就。但是，该公司的产品分销高度依赖与其他网络公司的合作关系，而相关费用侵蚀了众安低价保单的微薄利润。

ZhongAn was also forced last year to refund about Rmb500m in investment products, Mr Tang disclosed, after Chinese regulators banned them as part of a crackdown last year on short-maturity, high-yield wealth management products.
Tang透露称，去年，在中国监管部门为打击高收益短期理财产品而叫停投资型保险后，众安保险还被迫为相关产品退还了约5亿元人民币。