Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author | Feng Xiaoting
Edit | Rao Xiafei
On January 13, Waterdrop Insurance, an Internet insurance brokerage platform owned by Waterdrop Corporation (NYSE:WDH), released its 2021 annual summary review. In the past year, Waterdrop Insurance has made a lot of efforts in product supply-side innovation, deep cultivation of user services, and promotion of the implementation of universal protection.
As an Internet insurance platform different from traditional insurance companies, the number of water drop insurance shows that in terms of user data, the cumulative number of insurance customers of water drop insurance has exceeded 100 million, and the cumulative number of paid insurance customers has reached 27.2 million; product data, water drop insurance has launched 323 kinds of insurance products, of which 90% are products exclusively customized with insurance companies; user services, launched a "three-point and one-line" commitment, and claims manager has accumulated 860,000 minutes of service.
In the past 2021, the insurance industry has also quietly undergone drastic changes.
According to statistics from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, nearly 2,200 insurance branches withdrew from the market in 2021, and as of June 30, 2021, the number of insurance sales employees was 7.7 million, compared with 9.712 million in the same period of 2020, a decrease of 2.012 million.
At the end of 2021, Internet insurance once again welcomed the new regulations, and in October 2021, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Notice on Further Regulating the Internet Life Insurance Business of Insurance Institutions, with the purpose of effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
As Shen Peng, founder of Waterdrop, said in an interview with the cover news at the end of 2021, "transformation and upgrading" is the key word of Internet insurance and even the entire insurance industry in 2021, and the Internet insurance platform and even the entire insurance industry are facing in addition to the "cold winter of the epidemic" and compliance business risks, but also take into account the challenges of transformation and upgrading.
In Shen Peng's view, the insurance industry, especially the Internet insurance industry after experiencing the transformation in 2021, 2022 is a critical period to test how a company is doing, and good companies will find a way to break the situation and achieve higher quality development, "In 2022, we will enter the second five years, and we will always maintain an entrepreneurial mentality and explore more in the field of insurance and health protection." ”
Waterdrop's 2021 annual report card
The cumulative number of insurance users of Waterdrop Insurance exceeds 100 million, and the post-80s and post-90s have become the main force of insurance purchases, accounting for more than 33%. In addition, 6.23 million users on the waterdrop insurance platform have chosen to insure their families, and the home version of the product provides more convenient choices for such users.
In order to provide users with more inclusive and cost-effective products, as well as more convenient and intelligent services, Waterdrop Insurance has also made efforts in product innovation, channel expansion, service side and other aspects.
Waterdrop Insurance adheres to the breakthrough and innovation of the supply side of health insurance products, and has launched a total of 323 insurance products, of which 90% are exclusively customized with insurance companies. In 2021, Waterdrop Insurance also launched a number of popular and innovative customized health insurance products.
In June 2021, Waterdrop Insurance launched the first major illness insurance product that can be insured online for sub-healthy people, "Waterdrop Guardian Loves Critical Illness Insurance". According to reports, Waterdrop Insurance found through platform data that the number of users who cannot be insured due to physical reasons is close to tens of millions, but the products on the market that can support sub-healthy people are even more scarce. For this part of the population, Waterdrop Insurance, together with Qianhai Reinsurance and Love Life, has customized the "Waterdrop Guardian Love Critical Illness Insurance".
In 2021, Waterdrop Insurance also launched another highlight product, that is, the "Extreme Simple Version" short-term critical illness insurance "Waterdrop Million Critical Illness Insurance 2021". Teng Hui, chief actuary of Waterdrop Company, said that the implementation of the new regulations on serious illness will have a very big impact on serious illness insurance products, and the overall quality of serious illness insurance products will be significantly improved, and it will also provide insurance companies with a lot of innovation space. Waterdrop Insurance timely feedback on user needs, and work with insurance companies to quickly polish and iterate new products, and successfully launched the "Waterdrop Million Serious Illness Insurance 2021", which focuses on the concept of "extreme simplicity", providing more high-quality choices for users who pursue cost performance or want to increase the amount of major illness insurance.
In order to continue to promote strategic upgrading, in terms of channel expansion, Waterdrop Insurance explores the path of online + offline integration.
On the one hand, the offline brokerage business of Waterdrop Insurance has accelerated and promoted business growth. On the other hand, the water drop open platform has developed to the 2.0 stage, and water drop is committed to sharing the marketing, operation, intelligence and systematization capabilities accumulated in the past with partners to jointly expand the insurance incremental market.
At the beginning of September 2021, the offline brokerage team of Waterdrop Insurance released the "Waterdrop Insurance Brokerage 2.0 Strategy", launched two basic laws "WE Plan" and "ME Plan", and supported the four major enabling systems of digitalization, product, training and marketing, in order to create a professional, professional and digital broker team and provide users with refined insurance services.
Online, the Waterdrop Open Platform has developed to the 2.0 stage, which can provide partners with customer-centric, data-based "online + offline" refined operation strategies and technology empowerment solutions. Since 2021, more than 150 new service partners have been added to the Waterdrop Open Platform.
In order to better serve users, in the past year, Shui Di Bao has adhered to the service tenet of "user first" and launched a number of initiatives to improve user experience. In May 2021, after investigating the needs of nearly one million users, Shui Di Bao launched a "three-point and one-line" service commitment, which includes: no worry about capital security, no bother with professional explanations, no worries about the whole process of compensation, and misleading sales are the absolute red line.
Yang Guang said: "The essence of the insurance industry is business trust. The water droplet wants to add to itself and subtract itself. "In the past insurance sales process, the quality of insurance practitioners was uneven, and there were industry chaos including misleading sales, false publicity, and inconsistent service between promised services and actual services, which gradually led to a decrease in consumer trust in insurance practitioners or the insurance industry." Shui Di Bao launched the "three points and one line" service commitment, aiming to provide users with the most cost-effective products and the best quality services.
In addition to the exploration of conventional business, Shui Di Bao has also deeply participated in a number of urban huimin insurance projects, and actively explored a new model of "inclusive insurance + personal assistance + public welfare support".
It is understood that Shui Di Bao has participated in the "Beijing, Zibo, Dezhou" multi-place Huimin Insurance project. Yang Guang said that in the Huimin Insurance project, Shuidi's positioning is a "one-stop" insurance technology service platform, mainly covering product design, platform construction, marketing promotion, drug welfare management, patient services and other aspects. Relying on the scientific and technological precipitation of Waterdrop and the business qualification of the full license of the intermediary, it provides partners with the development of the insurance platform, the development of the medical insurance personal account payment system, the development of the co-insurance distribution system, the development of the claim system, and the construction of the "one-stop" settlement platform.
Do the hard and right thing
In addition to being the main theme of the Internet, openness and sharing are also the direction that Waterdrop will make efforts in 2021. Yang Guang believes that "in the process of insurtech to help transform life insurance channels, openness and sharing are the core ideas. ”
"We hope to build a comprehensive, service-oriented and open insurance intermediary, and in the past four years of practice, Waterdrop Insurance Broker has accumulated many explorations and experiences in insurance scenarios, online operations, insurance technology and system tools, and Waterdrop Insurance also hopes to share these capabilities with the industry." In the "2021 China Insurance Intermediary High-quality Development Summit", Yang Guang said.
Since 2018, Waterdrop Company has launched the Waterdrop Open Platform, continuing to export all aspects of experience and capabilities to the outside world, empowering partners, boosting the digital and intelligent upgrading of the insurance industry, and expanding the incremental market.
It is reported that the Waterdrop Open Platform can output two major solutions for partners: First, sales support solutions - to provide online and offline integration of marketing solutions, to help traditional insurance institutions improve online customer acquisition capabilities and service capabilities, as well as to establish online users and offline agents matching, trust and connection channels, to achieve a more efficient balance between supply and demand. Second, the industry empowerment solution - The Water Drop Open Platform can package and export water drops' products, marketing, operations, risk control, claims, big data and other capabilities to partners in need.
Analysts believe that the open platform of Waterdrop Insurance has been upgraded to 2.0, which is open to medical institutions, health management institutions and other third-party institutions while docking insurance companies. For Waterdrop, this is a further extension of its own scientific and technological capabilities to the industry, and it is also one of the breakthroughs of the "second growth curve".
But it is clear that building an open insurance platform is not an easy task.
At present, Waterdrop Company is forming a complete set of insurance technology capabilities through a large amount of R&D investment, forming a complete set of insurance technology capabilities such as marketing, operation, intelligence and systematization accumulated in the past, sharing with partners, opening up and win-win, and helping them expand the incremental market. The latest financial report shows that R&D expenses in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 92.9% year-on-year to 102.9 million yuan. Since 2018, the cumulative R&D investment of Waterdrop Company has exceeded 800 million yuan, and the size of the R&D team has exceeded 600 people.
However, an open platform is ultimately the "right thing to do." Overall, the open platform is also mutually beneficial to waterdrop companies and industries. For Waterdrop, the open platform is a natural extension of insurtech capabilities and is expected to become the second growth curve of business development; for the industry, the Waterdrop digital insurance open platform empowers the insurance industry, transforms the industry's "exchange value" into "shared value", and shares capabilities to reduce costs and increase efficiency for the industry.
The "difficult and right thing" of opening up the platform is the goal of Waterdrop Company, and it is also the direction of its efforts.
*The caption image is from Visual China.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.