Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author | Feng Xiaoting Zhao Chenxi
Edit | Deng Shuanglin
"Mutual Treasure will cease operations on January 28, 2022." On December 28, 2021, the online mutual aid platform Mutual Treasure announced the shutdown plan to the public.
As soon as this news was sent, it was like a boulder thrown into the water, stirring up a thousand waves of public opinion. Some users believe that they have "paid all the money in the past few years"; some users complain about their experience of being denied compensation; and some users feel regret that they will never be able to buy such a cheap major illness protection product in the future. There are also former mutual treasure recipients who thank each other on the Internet and "debate" with netizens who complain about mutual treasure.
There are also many users who say that they don't think much about this, and mutual treasure is often only part of the insurance protection for them, and they help each other by the way.
Chen Lin, who chose to join since the launch of Mutual Treasure in 2018, is a person with a great sense of insurance. In addition to mutual treasure, I also bought a total of more than a dozen insurances for myself and my family, including serious illness insurance, accident insurance, major illness medical insurance, property safety insurance, life insurance, etc., and the annual expenditure on insurance is tens of thousands of yuan.
She said bluntly that compared to other insurance, mutual treasure is too much. "In recent years, I have shared less than 500 yuan for myself and my family on the mutual treasure, and a person has to pay more than 5,000 yuan a year for a serious illness insurance." Mutual treasure for me, is a supplementary insurance, one more protection and more security. After the news of the shutdown came out, I think it is a pity, as for the money paid in the past, it is used as a peace of mind, after all, accident insurance is also paid every year and expires every year. ”
The closure of mutual treasure actually had a premonition. In May 2021, there were rumors that "mutual treasure will be closed on June 11, 2021". Some media have calculated that according to the shutdown plan of Mutual Treasure, the three phases of apportionment + follow-up case rescue cost + member transfer insurance three measures, the shutdown cost to be paid by Mutual Treasure is about 3 billion yuan, which has far exceeded the management fee it has received in the past three years.
Chen Maochuan, a senior analyst in the financial industry at Analysys, told Burning Finance that the main problem with Mutual Treasure lies in risk and compliance, and there are two reasons for the shutdown, "One is the policy level." Network mutual aid such as mutual treasure has the essence of insurance attributes, but it has always been in a regulatory blind spot. At the current financial policy level, risk control has always been the top priority for financial business, especially financial business related to the Internet. The 'innovative' financial business must be under compliance and supervision in order to develop healthily; second, at the operational level, the conditions for joining such network mutual aid products are relatively relaxed, there is a risk of adverse selection, and there is uncertainty in sustainable operation. ”
Although mutual treasure can be used as a supplementary force for residents' health protection to a certain extent, it is still quite different from commercial health insurance in essence. The mode of mutual treasure is that there is no need to pay in advance, and the mutual aid fund is distributed every month according to the actual number of rescuers. The original intention is that people with serious illness protection needs to help each other resist the risk of serious illness together.
It can be said that this is a product with a "utopian beauty" color. But as Mr. Li Dazhao said in the play "The Age of Awakening", "The theory of 'mutual aid' is not a scientific theory at all. "The mutual aid plan will eventually be unable to withstand the test of reality, and mutual treasures will not escape the embarrassing situation of dilemma."
The mutual treasure of the "dilemma"
This "self-contained" born product was once the "star product" of ants. Since its launch in 2018, Mutual Treasure has been an absolute "head" in a number of network mutual aid platforms, and its user number growth has repeatedly achieved good results, the number of users on the 9th day of the line exceeded the 10 million mark, and the number of users exceeded the 100 million mark during the year. In the process of growth, there is also controversy.
The main reason for this trouble is the sharp increase in the number of rescuers and the continuous increase in the amount of apportionment, and many netizens cannot understand the reasons for this, or accept the price after the increase.
"I joined when Mutual Treasure was first launched, and the first two months were 0 shares, then I began to share a few cents a month, and gradually rose to a few cents. In December 2019, when I looked, the apportionment amount was several dollars. Niu Benben, a former mutual treasure user, said that out of dissatisfaction with the increase in the amount of apportionment, he chose to withdraw from mutual treasure in early 2020.
There are not a few users like Niu Ben who quit Mutual Treasure. At present, the number of participants in Mutual Treasure is only 75 million, which is more than 20 million less than the peak number.
The core reason for the increase in the apportionment fee lies in the waiting period system and the law of large numbers in the incidence of serious illness. According to medical statistics and the insurance industry's claims experience, there is a certain probability of serious illness. In larger groups, the more stable the probability of serious illness. Therefore, for the mutual aid community of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of users such as Mutual Treasure, according to the incidence of serious diseases, hundreds of people will be diagnosed with serious diseases every day. This is a matter of probability, not subject to the subjective will of man. Moreover, due to the wide coverage of the mutual treasure, covering 100 serious diseases, the number of people diagnosed with serious diseases every day may be higher than predicted.
However, because mutual treasure is the same as major illness insurance, there is a 90-day waiting period system. All users are in the waiting period for the first three months, during which serious illness does not conform to the rules of mutual assistance, and there is a suspicion of joining with illness. As a result, the number of people in need of assistance in the first few months of mutual treasure is very small, and only a small number of members who have serious illnesses due to accidents are eligible for the mutual assistance rule. Correspondingly, the apportionment for the first few months of the mutual treasure is 0 or only a few cents. After four or five months, tens of millions of members have passed the waiting period, and the sick members have begun to comply with the rules of mutual assistance, so the number of rescuers has begun to rise sharply, and the apportionment has also risen sharply.
According to the current scale of 75 million people in Mutual Treasure, the number of people rescued in the first phase is about 3500 people, which is equivalent to 7000 people in a month. Measured by the number of people multiplied by 12 months, the incidence of serious illness in their communities is about 0.11%.
The Chinese Insurance Industry Experience Rate Table (2006-2010) shows that the probability of 25 major diseases in 30-year-old women is 0.099%, and the probability of 30-year-old men is 0.95%. Considering that the average age of the members of the mutual treasure is also about 30 years old, its overall probability of serious illness is close to the statistics of the insurance industry, which is completely in line with the law of large numbers.
But it is difficult for the general public to understand the reason for such a professional. Although Mutual Treasure has also made explanations and clarifications in the external announcement, from the comments of netizens, the effect is not good.
Previously, Mutual Treasure promised to "cap 188 yuan for individual annual apportionment" in 2019 and 2020. In fact, the apportionment price of Mutual Treasure in 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 29 yuan, 90.56 yuan and 160 yuan respectively. Although the price of 188 yuan has not yet been touched, 20 million users still choose to quit because of the expensive.
In addition to the rising amount of apportionment, some cases of "denial of compensation" exposed on social platforms have also made some users suspicious.
Guo Lixia, a senior DRM consultant who has helped users settle claims for mutual treasure, told Burning Finance that the procedures required for mutual treasure claims are similar to the procedures of normal commercial insurance, and after a complete investigation, they can finally successfully close the case, "Other cases of denial of compensation, there are many reasons, most of which are not in line with health notices." At the same time, Guo Lixia also said, "According to the mutual treasure investigators I have contacted, they will indeed go to the hospital one by one to investigate and verify." ”
On the one hand, as a mutual aid plan, according to the pay-as-you-go system, the money for successful claims is borne by all members together, and the higher the amount of compensation is shared; on the other hand, Mutual Treasure issues a conclusion through the case investigation review, and when the mutual aid applicant has objections to the results, it can also take the initiative to initiate a compensation trial team. However, under the strict implementation of the standard, it will naturally breed dissatisfaction among users who refuse to pay compensation.
In this way, Mutual Treasure gradually fell into a "dilemma" situation in the actual management process. On the one hand, it is scolded by some users and believes that mutual treasure is "indiscriminately compensated", on the other hand, it is scolded by sick members for "too strict review" and "refusal of compensation".
The "lesson" of mutual treasure
Mutual Treasure, formerly known as "Mutual Insurance", was jointly initiated by Alipay and Sino-American Life in October 2018, which was originally set as a group serious illness insurance, but it was urgently stopped by the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in less than two months, and then Sino-American Life withdrew and "Mutual Treasure" officially debuted. Because Xinmei Life no longer has the mutual treasure of an insurance nature after its withdrawal, its positioning has thus become a network mutual aid platform.
However, after the renaming of Mutual Treasure, as a network mutual aid product, it has become a product without supervision.
In September 2020, a certain part of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a document saying that it would include the network mutual aid platform in the supervision, "the network mutual aid platform, in essence, has the characteristics of commercial insurance, but there is no clear regulatory body and regulatory standards at present, and it is in an embarrassing situation of no one supervising." "But so far, no specific measures have been introduced.
In 2021, network mutual aid ushered in a wave of shutdowns. According to statistics, in 2021 alone, 10 network mutual aid platforms have announced their closure, including many network mutual aid platforms launched by large factories, such as Meituan Mutual Aid, Didi Mutual Aid, Easy Mutual Aid, Water Drop Mutual Aid, etc.
In April 2021, Xiao Yuanqi, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said when talking about the shutdown of network mutual aid that on the one hand, we must see the positive effect of network mutual aid, on the other hand, we must also see its potential risks. Xiao Yuanqi pointed out that network mutual assistance needs to be standardized and developed. If you engage in the financial industry and insurance industry under the banner of mutual assistance, you will deviate from the essence of mutual assistance and need to be corrected." All financial activities must be 'licensed driving'. ”
But in fact, the regulatory authorities have not implemented a licensing system for the network mutual aid industry. Therefore, the entire network mutual aid industry cannot achieve "licensed driving". Therefore, the network mutual aid industry with unclear supervision cannot go far, and actively shutting down and exiting is the only option.
At the same time, network mutual aid does not make money, and the shutdown may also be a stop-loss move in the middle.
It is well known that the management fee is drawn from each other, which is 8% of the current amount apportioned. Management expenses are levied on case investigation and review, daily operation and maintenance, technical, customer service and other costs to ensure the continuous operation of the plan. Industry insiders say that the 8% management fee is actually not high, even lower than the management fee of charitable organizations.
According to the Charity Law, the annual management expenses of charitable organizations in China shall not exceed 10% of the total expenditure of the current year. The average administrative expense of domestic insurance companies is much higher than 8%, generally around 30%.
What does mutual treasure teach ants?
The shut-down mutual treasure is a "guarantee education experiment" worth tens of billions of yuan for Ant Group. In this experiment, what did mutual treasure teach ants?
First, it is difficult to educate insurance users.
At present Chinese mainland market insurance has insufficient penetration among the total population, and premium growth is still limited compared to the scale of GDP that continues to expand. According to the "2021 China Insurance User Demand Trend Insight Report" released by iResearch, compared with foreign countries, the depth and density of insurance in the Chinese mainland market are at a low level. As of 2020, the insurance density in the Chinese mainland market is $465, less than 10% of the insurance density in the United States, which is a large gap compared with most of the world's insurance developed regions. In terms of insurance depth, the depth of insurance in the United States in 2019 reached 11.4%, and the depth of insurance in developed countries was 10%, which exceeded the current Chinese mainland insurance depth by 1 times.
The insurance penetration rate is insufficient, and the group with insurance awareness is also very small, which leads to the difficulty of insurance user education. The fact that mutual treasure is being spat upon by users is becoming more and more expensive also proves this. Expertise such as waiting periods, the incidence of serious illnesses, and claims settlements are too high for the public. Guo Lixia also said, "The members who join the mutual treasure are also divided into two parts, one is the insurance consciousness, and the other is the no insurance awareness. Users with insurance awareness, they will not only configure commercial insurance, but also join the mutual treasure; the other part is because they do not know the difference between commercial insurance and mutual treasure, and simply value the cheap price of mutual treasure. ”
The second is to try not to touch the product model that puts itself in opposition to the user.
In the 3 years since mutual treasure was launched, a large part of the reason why mutual treasure has always been controversial is that mutual treasure is in an awkward dilemma. On the one hand, whether it is insurance or mutual assistance, as long as there are rules, there will inevitably be a denial of compensation, and the denial of compensation will put themselves and the user on the opposite side.
On the other hand, even if claims can be made according to the rules, the more users are helped, the amount of users will increase, and members who are not sick will protest the high cost of sharing. Although the platform is reviewed according to the rules, the user side will inevitably fall into the situation of "two ends not being flattered".
Third, the expected management of user psychology is very important.
Facts have proved that the product operation of Mutual Treasure has not managed user expectations. At the beginning, the amount of mutual treasure was divided into a few cents, so users felt cheap, so that later rose to a few cents, a few dollars, and they were scolded for being expensive. Even if it is put into 2021, the price of mutual treasure is still very cheap, and the apportionment of users aged 0-59 in 2021 is only 160 yuan. Objectively speaking, the price of mutual treasure is still very cheap compared to insurance, but because the official has not done a good job of user expectation management, users feel expensive psychologically.
Fourth, do not do business with unclear supervision.
In the financial sector, no matter how fast and popular a business is, without clear regulation, there is a huge uncertainty. In the future, if Ant Group has other innovative businesses, it will definitely take the supervision as a prerequisite. Only by conducting business under the guidance of clear supervision can we go faster and more steadily.
From this point of view, the temporary existence of mutual treasure is also a valuable lesson for ants.
*The caption is from Visual China, and the inner text and illustrations are from Weibo @ Mutual Treasure. In the text, Chen Lin and Niu Benben are pseudonyms.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.