Original title: The curtain of network mutual assistance gradually falls.
In fact, the market has anticipated the shutdown of Xiang Hu Bao. Since the beginning of this year, multiple network mutual assistance programs have been announced to close.
On December 28, the mutual treasure announcement showed that starting from the date of the announcement, mutual treasure will stop operating at 24:00 on January 28, 2022. Existing mutual treasure members will no longer participate in mutual aid apportionment, and the original deduction of the apportionment fee on the same day And the two phases of apportionment in January 2022 will all be borne by the mutual treasure platform.
Many network mutual aid plans have been closed this year
On October 16, 2018, Xinmei Mutual and Ant Financial jointly launched mutual insurance. At this time, Mutual Insurance is a mutual insurance product of Xinmei Mutual. This product’s seemingly loose joining conditions, attractive claims settlement, and very simple operation method detonated the entire network as soon as it was launched, and the number of participants exceeded 20 million in just one month.
However, the mutual insurance was subsequently suspended by the regulatory authorities for alleged use of unreported terms and rates, misleading publicity, etc., and the regulatory authorities imposed penalties on Xinmei Mutual. On November 27 of the same year, Xinmei withdrew from each other, “mutual insurance” was renamed “mutual treasure”, and the main operating entity was also changed to Alipay.
Mutual Insurance is insurance, and Mutual Bao is a network mutual assistance plan.
In fact, the market has anticipated the shutdown of Xiang Hu Bao. Since the beginning of this year, multiple network mutual assistance programs have been announced to close.
Ant Group also mentioned in the previous IPO prospectus that Ant Group has made the following commitments regarding mutual treasure related arrangements in this issuance and listing: Ant Group promises to ensure mutual treasure compliant operations, open and transparent operations, no fund pool, and real-name implementation. Certification; if relevant government departments issue network mutual assistance supervision regulations and these regulations impose higher regulatory requirements on mutual treasure’s operation model and process, mutual treasure will adjust the operation mode and process within the specified time to meet compliance requirements; such as For various reasons, Hulubao cannot meet the compliance requirements, and it is not suitable for Ant Group to continue to operate as a listed company, then Ant Group will divest Hulubao’s business.
The shortcomings of the network mutual assistance business model gradually appear
According to the announcement, since Huhubao went online at the end of 2018, more than 100 million members have helped each other, helping 179,127 sick members while getting their own protection.
After Xiang Hu Bao made great progress, the decline gradually appeared. Previously, the Huhebao page no longer showed the number of users. After the negative growth of Xianghubao’s user scale at the beginning of this year, Tianfeng Non-Bank analyzed in a research report that since Xianghebao went online at the end of 2018, the growth trend of its user scale has been divided into three stages: the first stage (2018.12-2019.12) : Rapid growth, the number of people participating in the apportionment reached 100 million in December 2019; the second stage (2020.01-2020.07): The growth rate slowed down, and the monthly growth rate of the number of apportionment users was less than 1%, and the overall scale remained at 105 million people Around; the third stage (2020.07 to present): The number of users has shown a downward trend. After the number of participants reached the highest peak of 106 million in November, the month-on-month growth rate showed a negative growth.
In this regard, Tianfeng Non-yin has judged in the research report that at present, Xianghebao is in the “adjustment and digestion period” when the number of growth has stagnated and the adverse selection factors are fermented. Considering that the number of participating users is very large, according to the law of large numbers, it is expected that the subsequent share of the amount will still be Tend to a stable number.
Most of the online mutual assistance platforms are based on the business model of “flow + risk education”: through crowdfunding/mutual assistance platforms to accumulate potential customers, cultivate risk awareness, and ultimately realize the conversion of users to commercial insurance.
From the perspective of the profit model, the contribution of platform management fees to its own profit is minimal, and whether it can effectively direct short-term traffic to long-term customer groups is the key to achieving profitability. However, due to loose front-end reviews, the online mutual assistance platform attracts a large number of non-healthy groups. With the rapid increase in the amount of apportionment, healthy users are likely to withdraw from the mutual assistance platform, which eventually forms a cycle of adverse selection.
According to the analysis of the Tianfeng Non-Banking Research Report, the problem of “bad money driving out good money” caused by network mutual assistance will mainly affect the operation of the platform from two aspects: First, the number of participants has dropped sharply, and the increase in the number of compensation cases will cause solvency. Insufficiency will affect the continuous operation of the platform; second, the number of participants on the platform has declined, which has greatly increased the difficulty of diversion from the self-owned mutual assistance platform to the insurance business, and the profit model will be unsustainable.
Financial activities must be “driving with a license”
There are many people who hold different views on the network mutual aid plan. A person in the commercial insurance field believes that at present, due to the commercial insurance attributes of many network mutual aids and the large number of participants, some of the pre-charging model platforms have formed deposits and there are financial risks, so the shutdown is inevitable.
Other experts and scholars believe that the network mutual assistance market will inevitably exist for a certain period of time, and it can be used as a supplement to commercial insurance. For the network mutual assistance platform suggestions, it can be considered to regulate the development under supervision.
In September 2020, the Bureau of Combating Illegal Financial Activities of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission wrote an article that the network mutual assistance platform that has grown savagely in the recent period has essentially the characteristics of commercial insurance, but there is currently no clear supervisory subject and supervisory standard, and it is embarrassing that no one is supervised. situation.
In the face of new situations and new requirements, it is necessary to improve insurance regulatory policies and technology in a timely manner, crack down on illegal commercial insurance activities in a timely and accurate manner, ensure the healthy and stable development of the insurance market, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of insurance consumers.
The article mentioned that the network mutual assistance platform has a large number of members and is a non-licensed operation. Stakeholder risks cannot be ignored. Some pre-charging model platforms have formed precipitation funds and risk of running away. If improperly handled and poorly managed, it may trigger the society. risk.
In January 2021, at a press conference on the reform and development of the banking and insurance industry in 2020 held by the State Information Office, Xiao Yuanqi, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said in response to media attention that we will pay more attention to the mutual assistance business of Internet companies. Its operation method and risk situation, and then take corresponding measures according to the situation.
In April, at the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s first-quarter briefing on the development of the banking and insurance industry, Xiao Yuanqi said that on the one hand, he must see the positive effects of network mutual assistance, and on the other hand, he must also see its potential risks.
Xiao Yuanqi pointed out that network mutual assistance needs standardized development. “Charity is attributed to charity. If you engage in the financial and insurance industries under the banner of mutual assistance, you will deviate from the nature of mutual assistance and need to be corrected. All financial activities must be’driving with a license.'”
Enrich product supply and increase the development of inclusive insurance
One of the important reasons for the popularity of online mutual assistance platforms is the contradiction between insurance protection demand and supply. In recent years, as people’s income levels have increased, the people’s demand for insurance protection has also increased. Although social insurance covers a wide range, the degree of protection cannot meet people’s needs for serious illness medical treatment. For some areas where underwriting profits are low or underwriting risks are high, insurance companies often lack motivation. At the same time, my country has a large number of middle- or low-income people, who are not very aware of insurance and cannot afford higher premiums. Therefore, it has become a blind spot for commercial insurance.
Industry insiders believe that policy-based commercial insurance such as Huimin Insurance is gradually making up for this part of the demand. The “Guiding Opinions on Further Enriching the Supply of Life Insurance Products” issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission pointed out that insurance institutions should enrich the supply of products in multiple fields, increase the development of inclusive insurance, serve the construction of the pension insurance system, meet the needs of people’s health protection, and improve the elderly. , Children’s protection level, increase the protection of specific groups of people such as employees in new industries and new formats, and various flexible employment personnel.
Some people in the industry said that it is more secure to have a commercial insurance than mutual assistance on the Internet. “Some people think that joining the network mutual assistance is enough, and they don’t buy commercial insurance, they may be delayed instead.”
Liu Xinqi, chief analyst of the non-bank financial industry at Guotai Junan, believes that in the context of the shutdown of network mutual assistance, users of the original mutual assistance plan will turn to traditional insurance products to seek health protection, which will help traditional insurance companies to acquire incremental customers with clear insurance needs.
(Author: Li Zhihong, Editor: Ma Chunyuan)
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