A facial recognition app, Laolai.com, is being used by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, to ascertain pension payouts and avoid fraud.

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The Laolai mobile app is designed to enable elderly citizens to prove their identity in order to receive social security benefits. Some 250 million retirees now use the app, which was developed into an online platform for a wide range of services for elderly consumers, including health care, financial, live-streaming and e-commerce services.

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The identification and verification of citizens for social security services has been a major challenge for the Chinese government, which has fallen victim to fraud.

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In one such case, a senior administrative official in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region fraudulently obtained over 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) in pensions for more than 80 people who were already dead.

The government wants to prevent such fraud but the traditional process of verifying applications at social security offices is inefficient and burdensome for pensioners.

Laolai’s services, which are now available in over 20 cities, has attracted more than 15 million registered users. It attracts over 40,000 new users per day, has 3 million monthly active users and controls 95% of the market. The app was built in 2015 by Athena Eye, a tech company specializing in biometric authentication and computer vision technology This year, the company has expanded its online offerings for senior consumers by launching a “Senior University” educational program and financial and investment and live-streaming services.

Read more @Asia Nikkei