Millions rush to join a wild new health plan from Jack Ma’s Ant

A customer displays the AliExpress app on a mobile phone, after Safaricom secured a deal to use its M-Pesa mobile payment service for online shopping on one of Alibaba's platforms, at their offices in Nairobi, Kenya March 12, 2019. REUTERS/George Nganga

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial has done more than perhaps any company to disrupt China’s gargantuan banking and asset-management industries. Now it’s trying to re-imagine health insurance. 

Ant’s Xiang Hu Bao, which means mutual protection, has attracted 50 million people since its October inception, or more than five times the population of New York City.