When the post-90s began to tear off the label of “willfulness” and start to work hard for their life in large scale, not only the learning and enterprising life became the norm for this group, but also the rational attitude towards finance and the improvement of their awareness of future risks gradually became the new symbol of this group.
The post-90s and risk consciousness seem to be somewhat incompatible, but in fact, from the perspective of insurance consciousness, they can easily relate. Especially for this group of Internet natives who pursue convenient life, insurance is not only a powerful sedative for their pursuit of spiritual comfort, but also a calming pill for their material needs in an emergency. Internet insurance can satisfy both convenience and “security” needs.
This round of Internet insurance has been blowing for several years, but it has not reached the ideal height so far. Instead, the most surprising thing is the cruel reality of loss of three of the four major Internet insurance companies.
Data show that in 2017, three of the four enterprises with Internet insurance licenses in China suffered losses, and even two of them have not yet made profits, one of which is Taikang Online, which was separated from Taikang Life Insurance in 2015 and operated independently. Taikang Online, previously operated independently, has been the official website of Taikang Life Insurance since August 2000 and the main platform for its Internet business.
That is to say, taikang online before the establishment, has had more than 10 years of Internet insurance business experience, plus the back of the powerful traditional insurance company Taikang life, should have obtained more abundant channel resources than peers, this all the way should go relatively smooth. However, seemingly set advantage in a taikang line, why so far has not realized profit, its Internet insurance road why go so bumpy, and revealed the Internet insurance enterprise which development of helpless?
The main cause of two big contradictions: the increase of insurance premiums and profit losses
Up to now, there is a contradiction in the Internet insurance industry. The premium scale is increasing year by year, but many enterprises are losing money. Among them the reason, from the development of Taikang online, may be able to explore.
First, the increase of premium: related to the expansion of market scale
Public data show that the scale of premium income of Internet insurance continues to rise. In 2017, zhongan’s online premium income reached 6 billion yuan, up 75% year on year; The premium income of Eon insurance is 800 million yuan, up 3 times year on year. Another Taikang online premium income of 1.7 billion yuan, year-on-year growth also has as much as 1 times. This industry is telling people with facts, Internet insurance is not a simple “vase”, it has real strong revenue capacity.
And taikang online premium increase, to a certain extent related to its diversified marketing channels. Through various marketing channels such as official website, wechat official account and mobile phone software, it has accumulated a large number of user groups and provided the bottom user support for business expansion.
At the same time, in terms of the innovation of insurance services, Taikang Online, like other Internet insurance companies, is trying to pursue the improvement of insurance categories from the initial Internet sales of insurance services to the later customized insurance and fragmented Internet insurance services.
But while premiums are rising, the growth rate is falling. In 2015, Internet insurance experienced an explosive growth stage, and then the growth rate began to decline sharply. In 2016, the growth rate dropped to 5%. This seems inevitable. After all, the Internet insurance market has experienced a period of high growth and now it is time to return to rational development.
So, since the increase of premium and market scale expand ceaselessly, the factor such as insurance type increases ceaselessly is concerned. Similarly, the loss of profit is closely related to these two factors.
Second, the loss of profits: related to the lack of market experience
Be buckled on “place high hope” cap, tai Kang online also deserves to win this really “honor”. On the one hand, as the only Internet insurance company initiated and established by traditional insurance companies in the market, it is equivalent to being born with a silver spoon in its mouth, and it is understandable that it is attracted the attention of the market. On the other hand, Taikang online is the second enterprise to obtain Internet insurance license after zhongan Insurance.
Naturally, Taikang online has become the object of “many stars hold hands with the moon”, has not been online as if to shoulder heavy responsibilities.
But it didn’t get off to a good start.
Insurance regulatory Commission data disclosure, Taikang online was established for more than 3 months, the total premium is only 2.154 million yuan, the average monthly premium is less than one million, the premium growth weakness shows; Until 2016, according to data taikang online situation be slow, the top five is planted underwriting profit is negative, the casualty underwriting losses of more than 200 million, health insurance underwriting loss of 8.93 million yuan, in addition to other risk isn’t low losses, the amount of taikang online Internet insurance enterprise the road to start, is somewhat bleak.
In 2017, just as mentioned before, the light has not yet arrived, and losses have continued, but the situation of losses seems to be in a group, which has evolved into a situation in which all four Internet insurance companies lose money.
Due to limited operating time, several Internet insurance companies have yet to enter a steady profit cycle. The latest data show that in 2017, the net profit of the four insurance companies “three minus one positive”, only yi ‘an property insurance made a profit for the second consecutive year.
The main cause of loss, and the Internet insurance company established a shorter time has a strong connection. Taikang Online and other Internet insurance companies were established in 2015 or 2016, and they do not have rich development experience in the field of Internet insurance, so high trial and error costs in the early stage are inevitable. On the other hand, in order to seek business expansion, Taikang online in health insurance, accident insurance, as well as in the big health, auto insurance and other strategic projects investment is not low.
However, to be an Internet insurance company, and simple online sales of insurance are two different things, the view has changed, the operation has to add a lot of professional flavor. Not only does it cost to “educate” the market, but the development of business models cannot be slacken.
This is not, to expand the scope of business, “lack what fill what” this “local flavor” of the development of the way, but also tai Kang online as on the Internet insurance road master key. But the master key seems to have been corroded in the process of exploring the true meaning of Internet insurance.
The dream of “three pillars” may be difficult to compete with the cruel reality
Generally speaking, enterprises grow to a certain stage, in order to broaden the development channels, diversified business layout has become a consensus among industries, the insurance industry is the same. Not only do traditional insurance companies need to provide diversified services, but it is also reasonable for Internet insurance companies to expand their service scope based on their advantages of bigger imagination space and more advanced technological means.
There are so many types of insurance, but only a few are popular. Generally speaking, auto insurance and health insurance are the two major needs in insurance, and are also the hot spots for people to buy insurance types. Among traditional property insurance companies, auto insurance accounts for 70%.
Initially, Taikang’s online business focused on life insurance, life insurance and financial insurance, while its auto insurance business was just launched in February 2017. But it is not difficult to see that Taikang online not only intended to fill the blank of their own insurance business, but also saw the industry prospects of Internet car insurance.
It is also taikang online layout in the field of Internet auto insurance, for its proposed this year the layout of strategic development of the three pillars laid a foreshadowing.
From a traditional network insurance sales platform to upgrade for Internet insurance companies, Taikang online in the layout of the insurance is planted on the small abacus. Recently its CEO Wang Daonan said in an interview, Taikang online in the future to create auto insurance, health insurance and non-car property insurance three pillars of Internet insurance pattern.
Below, we analyze taikang online’s chances of success in this respect from the three angles of “two bureaus-auto insurance and health insurance” and the problems existing in taikang Online itself.
First, the car insurance mountain is not easy to climb
Start with its new entry into the Internet auto insurance industry.
From the fierce competition of current Internet car insurance, taikang online just entered the car insurance field quite fire, but also not so good mix.
Yin Ming, president of Ant Financial Insurance business Group, said recently that in five years, the auto insurance industry will evolve with intelligence, and the business model will be completely reconstructed.
In contrast to the car insurance prospect, the current Internet car insurance market environment is chaotic. In the middle of March this year, the original insurance regulatory commission issued on the adjustment of some areas of commercial auto insurance independent pricing notice clearly pointed out that the auto insurance market malignant competition chaos still exists, the Internet auto insurance is the focus of the name.
But in fact, before this Internet car insurance business life is not very good. Internet property business data released by The Insurance Industry Association of China in 2017 shows that the proportion of online sales of Internet auto insurance continues to decline, and even dropped to 62.25% in 2017, while the Internet business of non-auto insurance has increased significantly. At the same time, in the case of insurance consumer complaints in 2017, auto insurance has become the largest proportion of property insurance complaints.
In response, the homogenization of auto insurance products, as well as the industry chaos caused by premium kickbacks and price wars in the marketing activities of Internet auto insurance.
Undeniably, the auto insurance business model is reconstituted in the process, always have to pay some growth costs. But the current situation, Taikang online this Internet car insurance industry beginners, not only encountered regulatory pressure, but also may be numerous offensive strong competitors crushed. When can auto insurance become taikang online tripartite plan in a general, how can this mountain successfully span, the enterprise itself may also have some confusion.
Second, the profit model of health insurance is difficult to cross
Finish finish car insurance, look again taikang online health insurance business.
At present, the great health ecology has become the consensus of the Internet insurance industry, and the premium growth is obvious. Data released by the Insurance Industry Association of China showed that in the first half of 2017, Internet health insurance premiums increased by 102% year-on-year, showing explosive growth. According to the announcement of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the domestic health insurance premium market is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan by 2020.
On the whole, although health insurance accounts for a small proportion compared with the total amount of insurance, many Internet insurance companies have long sensed business opportunities and quietly launched a layout in this regard. Both Zhongan Insurance, which saw a substantial increase in health insurance premiums in 2016, and EON Insurance, which has made profits, have paid great attention to health care. Taikang Online has chosen to cooperate with Tencent to create health insurance products.
However, for the health insurance service with a long service chain, the profit model of this path is not easy to explore. On the one hand, users’ requirements for health insurance experience are not low. Assuming that the first service experience is poor, it is difficult for users to purchase the insurance for the second time. Second, as health insurance relies heavily on data and technologies such as medical data pricing and risk control, it will be more difficult to capture risks if insurance companies do not have such data. In addition, the high operating costs that need to be invested also become a hurdle in front of Internet insurance companies.
From this point of view, although the big health ecology has become a common development consensus of Internet insurance companies, it has become a challenge for Internet insurance companies such as Taikang Online to establish a sustainable and healthy business operation model under the major problems of health insurance operation.
Third, the dream of Internet insurance is not easy to do
Having said auto and health insurance, taikang online’s own product defects have also created many limitations for its business.
According to the regulatory letter issued by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in February this year, among 148 taikang online products and materials for filing, there are as many as 109 products with problems mainly concentrated in the terms of the expression is not rigorous enough, the insurance category belongs improperly and the adjustment coefficient without upper limit. Therefore, such problems violated the “property insurance company insurance clauses and insurance rate management measures”, Taikang online was ordered to stop using the problem products.
Under the pressure of supervision, some products were stopped to Taikang online also sounded the alarm, as the Internet financial technology enterprise Taikang online, in the future on the product operation must be more careful, and the business is no longer as “capricious”; But from the side also reflects, Taikang online products exist many problems, indicating that its products still have great room for improvement.
From this can also be extended, although the Internet can reach the traditional insurance difficult to reach the place, but also the most likely to violate the bottom line. Perhaps it is the generally low premium price of Internet insurance that, to some extent, contributes to the unhealthy atmosphere caused by the disorder in the industry.
Before some third party platform joint insurance company launched “forget to wear long underwear risk”, “help the elderly was wrong risk”, “bear children trouble risk” and other nonsense insurance, so far has not been erased from the memory of netizens. Under the chaos of the industry, the Internet insurance industry is left with many problems, such as product misnomer, hidden risk of user information leakage, etc.
From this point of view, in taikang online own product problems, and the industry chaos caused by the “notorious” reputation and other negative factors, taikang online Internet insurance dream is afraid not so good to do.
Are you fishing for big fish or shrimp?
The combination of fintech and insurance is still in its infancy, so even if insurance companies have big data and risk control capabilities, the two sides still need a long running-in process. Since 2015, the trend of combining technology and insurance has been gradually highlighted. From health insurance, non-car property insurance to auto insurance, Taikang Online has just started the battle of diversification of Internet insurance.
The loss that Internet insurance companies generally face may be related to the ambitious goal of enterprise investment in the early stage and large-scale recovery in the later stage.
Take Taikang Online for example, its 2017 operating expenses of 1.75 billion yuan, up 106.12% year on year, including compensation expenses of 399 million yuan, up 264% year on year; Fees and commissions cost 272 million yuan, up 75.48% year on year; Taikang Online, on the other hand, may be making a bigger move based on its own business layout and development plans that seem to be in no hurry to make profits.
But in view of the current situation of the Internet insurance companies, Taikang online put the long line, catch is a big fish or shrimp, there is still great uncertainty.
Internet business era, Taikang online and other Internet insurance enterprises, but also should pay attention to the following major problems.
In terms of business model, it can be said that business opportunities and models are constantly changing with the transformation and upgrading of user needs. Whoever can predict the trend of user needs and seize development opportunities will undoubtedly become the pioneer in the industry.
In terms of scene requirements, user scenes are undoubtedly changing with the development of The Times, but excessive pursuit of scenes is also prone to deviate from the original intention of insurance products;
From the perspective of promotion, Internet insurance companies have not yet found a more humane promotion way, and they are also hard to avoid the predicament similar to traditional insurance companies, that is, the barbaric push marketing way that is easy to be disliked but has to be done in order to expand users.
As for the combination of Internet insurance, the traditional financial industry and Internet technology, how much sparks can burst out is worth exploring by Internet insurance companies and expecting by users.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110