The author | lemon
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"Help! Almost killed by the internet celebrity insurance pit!! ”
In October 2021, the blogger Smile published a note on the Internet celebrity products in the Xiaohong book, "The solvency of these Internet celebrity insurance companies is approaching the lowest line, and it is the focus of the CBIRC's interview." ”
Previously, in the process of communicating with many insurance brokers, influencer insurance frequently appeared in the recommendation list of salespeople, but the cost-effective influencer insurance was so beautiful that it was unreal, so that she could not make up her mind. After stumbling upon an article analyzing the situation of some domestic insurance companies, the blogger smiled and realized, "No wonder the premium is so favorable and the amount of insurance is very high." It is to quickly collect money to fill the gap in funds. ”
With the development of the domestic insurance industry, insurance that was once "demonized" has been accepted by more people, and the rise of "Internet +" has led to the vigorous development of Internet insurance, which has attracted a large number of young people to join.
According to the data of the Prospective Research Institute, its market size has exceeded 290 billion yuan in 2020, with a penetration rate of 6.4%, and a series of insurance-related enterprises that mainly focus on Internet channels have also embarked on the road of creating consumption scenarios for young people, such as Huixue Insurance, which has been committed to providing "the first long-term insurance policy for young people".
However, such a boom may have become a thing of the past, at the end of 2021, Internet insurance products ushered in a wave of "off the shelves", all because of the "Notice on Further Regulating the Matters Related to the Internet Life Insurance Business of Insurance Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Rules") issued in October 2021.
According to the requirements of the new regulations, insurance companies to release Internet insurance products threshold increased, the requirements for products are more stringent, a large number of Internet insurance products announced the removal of shelves, dozens of insurance companies announced that they will no longer provide Internet business, the Internet insurance industry ushered in a major reshuffle, the next insurance of young people, will no longer be "net red".
After ending the carnival of barbaric growth, online channels have lost some of their imagination space, but in the long run, there is still much to be done.
01 The Last Prosperity
"Buy fast!" This may be the last cry of the influencer insurance.
After many years of scenery, the tail of the Internet celebrity insurance in 2021 showed a bit of embarrassment, a large number of Internet celebrity products were entangled in the news of "removal", many online insurance brokers made a final struggle on various platforms, "cost-effective" was repeatedly mentioned, "can not buy after removing the shelves" has also become one of their mantras, and the previous "soon to stop selling" promotional methods are somewhat similar.
However, this time the "suspension of sale" is no longer alarmist, in the face of media interviews, Xu Yuchen, founding member of the China Association of Actuaries, said, "The news that a large number of Internet life insurance products will be removed at the end of the year is not speculation." ”
On November 3, 2021, Hengqin Life issued an announcement that it would remove 4 hot-selling products from the Internet channel in November, and on December 2, Xintai Insurance issued a notice on its official website to suspend the Internet insurance business, and many small and medium-sized insurance companies such as Centennial Life, Dingcheng Life, Kunlun Health, and Three Gorges Life also issued announcements that they would adjust or suspend the Internet life insurance business, and the Internet red insurance ushered in the "off-shelf tide".
All this stems from the Notice on Further Regulating the Internet Life Insurance Business of Insurance Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the "New Rules") issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in late October 2021, according to the requirements of the New Rules, a large number of insurance companies have lost the qualification to sell some Internet products, and December 31, 2021 has become their Deadline.
In addition to trying to "harvest" some customers before some "net red products" rushed off the line, there are also many "insurance" KOLs to comfort restless consumers, "It is not that they are not selling, but they are continuing to sell through another channel." ”
Fei Yi, an insurance evaluator, said that due to the new regulations raising the sales threshold of Internet insurance, "the explosive manufacturing machines - Xinmei, Xintai, Hongkang, Haibao, Aixin, Hengqin, etc. were destroyed by the group." "But if the insurance company has offline branches, it is still possible to buy these influencer products offline."
"But these companies are basically made by the Internet, and there are fewer offline branches, so people in most areas can't buy it visually." Fei Yi suggested to fans in the Little Red Book notes in November that if you have not bought it, you should quickly sort out the products you need, get on the car as soon as possible, and it will be difficult to encounter these cost-effective products in the future.
In the Xiaohongshu community, there are more than 650,000 notes on insurance, and in the Douban Insurance Life Talk Group, nearly 9,000 team members gathered to discuss insurance-related topics together, and in the group, we can also see a lot of topics such as "how to configure insurance for 25-year-olds" and "what serious illness insurance is purchased by 24-year-olds". According to statistics from third-party data platforms, nearly 50% of Ping An's annual new insurance policies in 2019 were contributed by post-80s and post-90s, and insurance potential customers were mainly young people.
More and more young people began to have insurance awareness, small and medium-sized insurance companies also took the opportunity to carry out business through the Internet, there is no cost pressure of offline channels, the Internet platform has become a "overtaking curve" for small and medium-sized insurance companies, the cost of Internet insurance products has also dropped again and again, and in the stage of staking, profitability is no longer the only criterion.
Small and medium-sized insurance companies have made more radical designs in terms of product benefits and prices. The lower the premium, the higher the insurance amount, the same as the types and content elements of insurance products, the long-winded product introduction, not as good as the specific number of low investment and high return is more impressive to consumers, and small and medium-sized insurance companies do not turn back on the road of "high cost performance".
However, behind the so-called "high price" is the "high risk" brought by small and medium-sized enterprises, and the frequent problems of Internet celebrity insurance have laid the fuse for the landing of the new regulations.
02 The carnival is over, there is no winner
The new rules and boots landed, and the era of barbaric growth of Internet insurance came to an abrupt end.
According to industry statistics, only about 20 of the 56 insurance companies with relevant sales qualifications meet the qualifications for online sales of long-term insurance. In addition to raising the sales threshold, there are also certain requirements for insurance products.
Many small and medium-sized insurance companies have had to remove products such as incremental whole life insurance and critical illness insurance, which were previously popular with customers, and redesign their products. Now that the product reservation surcharge rate has been more clearly defined, the former price war strategy is no longer allowed, when the price is no longer an advantage, how to continue to please consumers may become a new issue for various insurance companies.
Investment-oriented insurance, such as participating insurance, universal insurance, and investment-linked insurance, is required not to be sold on Internet channels. In 2015, with universal insurance with an annualized interest rate of up to 5% and 6%, Qianhai Life made a lot of money, put on the cloak of financial management, the meaning of insurance is no longer simple, although the corporate reputation is not inferior to Ping An, Life and other established insurance companies, but the ultra-high annualized interest rate still attracts a large number of consumers, and the huge premiums recorded in the account allow Qianhai Life to show its skills in the secondary market.
According to its financial data, in 2015, the revenue of the universal insurance business was 48.468 billion yuan, and as of the end of 2016, the balance of the insured's deposits and investment funds in the universal insurance business exceeded 160 billion yuan. However, this crazy product was soon urgently stopped by the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, when the use of insurance funds was no longer based on "insurance" as the core, and the deteriorated "universal insurance" became the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Qianhai Life and consumers. Even if the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission stopped in time, the loss of the continuous income brought by universal insurance was enough to seriously hurt Qianhai Life's vitality, and in less than a year, Qianhai Life's operating conditions were visibly sluggish, and it had to sell a part of its financial assets to ensure its survival.
Qianhai Life's aggressive universal insurance is no longer "universal", but the investment insurance of other insurance companies has not yet lapsed, and the insurance with financial nature makes young people who love to "make money" fall in love with it, and still live freely in the Internet world with the elements of "financial management". In the "2021 China Internet Insurance Consumer Insight Report" jointly released by Tsinghua University, Yuanbao and Kantar, it can be seen that more than 30% of the post-80s and post-90s prefer financial insurance.
Xu Yuchen, a founding member of the China Association of Actuaries, also said that previously, universal insurance, participating insurance, and investment-linked insurance accounted for a relatively large proportion of premiums in Internet channels, according to the statistics of the China Insurance Association, in 2020, of the 211.1 billion yuan premium of Internet life insurance, about 42% of the premiums were contributed by new insurance products such as participating, universal, and investment-linked. Some insiders estimate that after the implementation of the new regulations, the disappearance of investment insurance in Internet channels may bring about a 50% reduction in premium income.
Product types are limited, product design has a framework, more and more formal Internet insurance, the end of the carnival of free growth, and the return to the most essential "insurance" business.
In terms of sales methods, there are no longer salespeople who take the initiative to carry out marketing, but "Internet life insurance business consulting and services can be provided online at the request of consumers". This also means that compared with the previous insurance sales model, buyers need to have higher professionalism, and need to have a stronger sense of insurance and the desire to take the initiative to buy.
For insurance companies, in the era of barbaric growth in previous years, how to achieve the results of consumer mental education, 2022 after the implementation of the new regulations, I am afraid that it will become the final assessment.
The sales environment has changed dramatically, whether it is consumers or insurance companies, it needs a transition period, at least in the short term, the days of Internet insurance will not be too good.
03How else can Internet insurance be played?
Judging from the data, the business of Internet insurance is quite popular.
According to data released by the China Insurance Industry Association, the proportion of Internet life insurance premium income in total life insurance premiums rose from 0.4% to 5.4% between 2013 and 2020. In 2020, a total of 61 life insurance companies carried out Internet insurance business, with a total of 211.08 billion yuan in total scale premiums.
In recent years, many Internet manufacturers have actively laid out online insurance business, some as intermediaries to provide platforms, and some directly launch their own insurance business. In 2017, Baidu waited for two years to acquire an insurance intermediary license through the wholly-owned acquisition of an insurance economic company, and the next year it could not wait to launch its own insurance platform.
In July 2017, Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Alibaba, obtained an insurance agency license, and in October of the same year, Tencent's WeMin Insurance Agency Co., Ltd. officially obtained a business license and will rely on WeChat and QQ platforms to carry out insurance business, and Internet manufacturers such as JD.com, Suning, and NetEase have also entered the insurance industry.
In the first half of 2021, only insurance brokerage related companies added more than 5,000 companies, an increase of more than 60% year-on-year, but the current domestic Internet insurance market is still a blue ocean, most Internet users have not been "educated", and the awareness of insurance is not high. Internet insurance penetration is low, which means that the insurance business is still promising.
The Internet has made young people an excellent target, the Internet insurance business is booming, more and more players have joined in, but the fierce war has made the loss of money and money has become a "common disease" of the Internet insurance business, and compliance is still a common problem. The new rules also pay special attention to the solvency of insurance companies, taking this as an important entry threshold.
According to public information, from 2016 to 2020, the product structure of the Internet life insurance business has undergone significant changes. In 2016, 83% of the business came from life insurance, and by 2020, the proportion of this business fell to 56%; in the same period, the proportion of health insurance business increased from 2% in 2016 to 18% in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 85%, and the reason for the rapid growth of health insurance is precisely because millions of medical insurance and some "net red serious illness insurance" are sought after by the market.
After the new rules and boots land, the script of losing money cannot continue, and the Internet insurance business that is back on track may take this opportunity to complete the market division. In the offline market, the advantages of large insurance companies will become more and more obvious, small and medium-sized enterprises still need to rely more on intermediary institutions to develop, and in the online market, the traffic of traditional insurance companies is not as good as that of Internet companies, perhaps the intermediary platform of Internet companies will usher in development opportunities, but in any case, the supervision of Internet insurance will become more stringent, and the development of the industry will be more formal.
For traditional insurance companies, the future of Internet insurance products may only be used as a supplement to their offline business, the insurance business of Internet giants is probably only the icing on the cake, and pleasing young people may become a common topic between the two sides in the Internet insurance business.
Cost-effective "net red" insurance ushered in a wave of removal, after the painful period, the trend of Internet insurance will not change, but no matter how the market environment changes, the old saying that you get what you pay for will never go out of style.
(The smile and non-one in the text are pseudonyms)