Private pension companies have found a new battlefield in their fight for customers - virtual space.
"Pensii private (private pensions)" has been included in an increasing number of searches on the Internet, now generating over 1,200,000 results, a little fewer than "asigurari de viata (life insurance)", 1,310,000, but twice as many as "asigurare RCA (auto liability insurance)", 693,000.
One of the insurance companies that has entered the virtual space of private pensions is Allianz-Tiriac, through the pensiiprivate.ro website it bought two years ago.
Though the Internet can be a good way to attract potential customers, the largest part of the advertising budgets of pension fund managers, consisting of millions of euros, is spent on TV and printed press promotion, as well as on sales agent recruitment campaigns.
It was not only fund managers, but also small investors, who became aware of the huge opportunities in the domain of private pensions, with analysts predicting that it will be the business of the century, drawing in tens of billions of euros in assets.
Thus, an increasing number of individuals and small companies are setting up websites providing information about pensions, in the hope of selling advertising space and signing partnership contracts with pension companies.
A Google "pensii private (private pensions)" search yields several sites, which include these results - pensii-private.eu, pensiiprivate.org, pensie-privata.ro, pensii-private.net and pensie-privata-suplimentara.ro. The administrator of the pensii-private.eu domain name, a 26 year-old student from Alba, who wishes to remain anonymous, says private pensions are a great opportunity for generating profit.
"I heard private pensions were being launched and decided to set up a website. I believe this is going to be a very lucrative business," said the administrator of the site.
Pensii-private.eu was launched in early April and boasts 200 visitors per day on average. The website's revenues are still close to zero, but its administrator hopes to sell ad space and plans to sell the domain name after the number of visitors increases.
Another website, pensii-private.ro or pensie-privata.ro, was set up by the Ama Sercom SRL firm, whose owner, Mihai Alcea, says he does not have any concrete plans related to these domain names for the time being.
"I bought them two years ago and I want to see what opportunities arise. The site is still at the level it was in 2005, but we want to update it in early August, when pillar II (mandatory) pension funds are selected," states Alcea.
Publishing companies have not missed the opportunity of acquiring a private pensions website, either. Media XPRIMM, publisher of insurance and pensions magazines, owns the privatepensions.ro domain name, according to rotld.ro, which provides information on website owners.
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