Waterdrop Corporation (NYSE:WDH) today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. According to the report, the Q3 performance of Waterdrop Company has grown steadily, and the first year premium (FYP) of the Waterdrop Insurance Platform in the first three quarters has increased by 37.5% year-on-year to 14.464 billion yuan, which has exceeded the annual first year premium in 2020. The ratio of sales and marketing expenses for the quarter decreased by 37.2%, showing the company's control over marketing expenses, with an operating loss of 513 million yuan, a significant decrease of 37.1% compared with the second quarter.
Shen Peng, founder and CEO of Waterdrop, revealed that based on the firm confidence in the company's prospects and support for the company's long-term sustainable development, as well as the firm choice to safeguard the interests of the general public investors, more than 30 core management teams, including himself, have promised before the listing that they will not sell or dispose of the company's stocks or options for at least 18 months after the end of the lock-up period this month, and continue to strengthen strategic stability and focus more on the company's development.
Shen Peng also said that Waterdrop Company will seize the opportunity to actively use science and technology to link partners from all walks of life, through the diversified business combination of Waterdrop Chip, Waterdrop Insurance, Waterdrop Medical and other diversified business combinations to help the third distribution, help common prosperity, promote the deep integration of digital technology and health security industry, and hope to contribute to the realization of the second centenary goal and the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
It is reported that in the company's internal meeting, Shen Peng, Yang Guang and other core executives have expressed "confidence in the future" and "short-term stock prices do not reflect the true value of a company." We must seriously focus on the company's vision and goals to make the company better, and when the company is running better and better, it will naturally return to its due value. ”
In this Q3 financial report, Shen Peng said that in recent months, the volatility of the capital market has intensified, and the insurance industry has entered a period of transformation. The company will continue to be customer-centric and focused on consolidating the company's fundamentals. "The company has built a solid business foundation through a network of customers, product innovation capabilities, technological advantages, and unique synergies between business units. This allows us to remain resilient and adapt to all changes. ”
Since the first half of this year, the entire Chinese stock market has been cold due to additional disclosure requirements imposed by the US SEC on Chinese companies and a series of industry regulatory storms, with the Snowball China 30 Index falling by more than 26% since May 3 and China's overseas Internet ETFs falling by 35%. At the same time by various reasons, in the past year, the entire insurance industry into a period of transformation, insurance company growth is weak and weak, the entire insurance sector fell by nearly 40%, the data show that the insurance industry in the first three quarters of this year to achieve the original insurance premium income of 3.65 trillion yuan, down 1.29% year-on-year. In the second half of this year, regulators have issued several documents, which are intended to standardize and rectify the sales of Internet insurance products, information security, etc., and guide the sustainable development of the industry.
Despite the impact of the industry market, the Q3 financial report shows that the first year premium of Waterdrop Insurance in the third quarter remained stable compared with the same period last year, and still "outperformed the industry". The company also expects significant reductions in sales and marketing expenses, as well as operating costs and expenses.
China's Internet insurance in the future contains an industrial scale of 1.4 trillion yuan, CICC research report pointed out that China's Internet premiums are expected to reach 2.5 trillion yuan in 10 years, equivalent to recreating half of the insurance market, the internet insurance track prospects are very clear. At the same time, Oliver Wilver believes that from the perspective of sales channels, the Internet third-party platform will become the channel with the most growth potential in China's Internet insurance market.
At the analyst meeting released in the second quarter of the previous financial report, Shen Peng also stressed that the current stock price of Waterdrop has indeed fallen to a far undervalued state, the team's organizational ability is industry-leading, and the various businesses are developing in an orderly and steady manner, firmly believing that the company will continue to lead in the future in the challenging industry background. "The focus of the company's development will gradually shift from the previous business scale growth to pay more attention to the improvement of business quality, further enrich the service categories, enhance user satisfaction and user value, in order to achieve the company's long-term development goals."