Waterdrop (WDH) Ergebnis-Call Q2 2026: Umsatz steigt dank Versicherungswachstum um 72,8 %
Waterdrop Inc. verzeichnete im zweiten Quartal 2026 einen Nettobetriebsumsatz von 1,448 Milliarden CNY, was einem Anstieg von 72,8 % gegenüber dem Vorjahreszeitraum entspricht. Das Wachstum wurde maßgeblich durch einen Zuwachs der Versicherungseinnahmen um 80,5 % angetrieben. Der Betriebsgewinn stieg im Jahresvergleich um 14,3 % auf rund 111 Millionen CNY. Der den Aktionären zurechenbare Reingewinn sank hingegen um 10,3 % auf etwa 126 Millionen CNY. Für das Gesamtjahr 2026 strebt das Management ein Umsatzwachstum von über 40 % sowie einen Anstieg des Betriebsgewinns von mehr als 10 % an. Zudem wurden eine Bardividende und ein neues Aktienrückkaufprogramm genehmigt.
Wichtigste Erkenntnisse
- Waterdrop Inc. (WDH) wies für das 2. Quartal 2026 einen Nettobetriebsumsatz von 1,448 Milliarden CNY aus, was einem Anstieg von 72,8 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr entspricht, angeführt von einem Zuwachs der Versicherungseinnahmen um 80,5 %.
- Der Betriebsgewinn stieg im Jahresvergleich um 14,3 % und im Vergleich zum Vorquartal um 39,2 % auf rund 111 Millionen CNY. Der den Aktionären zurechenbare Reingewinn fiel im Jahresvergleich um 10,3 %, stieg jedoch gegenüber dem Vorquartal um 27,9 % auf etwa 126 Millionen CNY.
- Die eingenommenen Versicherungserträge erreichten 1,33 Milliarden CNY. Die Zahl der neugewonnenen Kunden stieg im Vergleich zum Vorquartal um 32,3 %, während die Erstjahrprämien aus langfristigen Versicherungen um 33,4 % zulegten.
- KI-gestützte Nutzerinteraktionen generierten Erstjahrprämien von fast 100 Millionen CNY. Das Management erklärte, dass KI vor allem zu Umsatzwachstum und operativer Effizienz beitragen soll und nicht als eigenständiges Geschäft betrieben wird.
- Für das Gesamtjahr 2026 strebt das Management ein Wachstum des Gesamtumsatzes von mehr als 40 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr sowie einen Anstieg des Betriebsgewinns um über 10 % an.
- Der Verwaltungsrat genehmigte eine Dividende von 0,03 US-Dollar pro ADS sowie ein neues Aktienrückkaufprogramm von bis zu 50 Millionen US-Dollar über die nächsten 12 Monate.
Finanzielle Kerndaten
| Kennzahl | Q2 2026 | Veränderung | Kommentar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nettobetriebsumsatz | 1,448 Milliarden CNY | +72,8 % ggü. Vorjahr | Das Wachstum wurde hauptsächlich vom Versicherungsgeschäft getrieben |
| Versicherungseinnahmen | 1,333 Milliarden CNY | +80,5 % ggü. Vorjahr | Machte den Großteil des Gesamtumsatzes aus |
| Betriebsgewinn | 111 Millionen CNY | +14,3 % ggü. Vorjahr; +39,2 % ggü. Vorquartal | Betriebsgewinn im Versicherungsbereich erreichte 180 Millionen CNY |
| Den Aktionären zurechenbarer Reingewinn | 126 Millionen CNY | -10,3 % ggü. Vorjahr; +27,9 % ggü. Vorquartal | Beeinflusst von Steuerpositionen sowie einmaligen Gewinnen und Verlusten |
| Gesamte Betriebskosten und Aufwendungen | 1,337 Milliarden CNY | +80,5 % ggü. Vorjahr | Spiegelte die Geschäftsexpansion und höhere Ausgaben für die Kundenakquisition wider |
| Vertriebs- und Marketingaufwendungen | 638 Millionen CNY | Gegenüber 199 Millionen CNY in Q2 2025 | Ausgaben für Drittanbieter-Traffic-Kanäle stiegen um rund 450 Millionen CNY |
| F&E-Aufwendungen | 68,8 Millionen CNY | +32,4 % ggü. Vorjahr | Kosten für Cloud-Server, Token-Nutzung und sonstige IT-Unterstützung stiegen |
| Liquide Mittel und verwandte Positionen | 2,653 Milliarden CNY | Per 30. Juni 2026 | Umfasst liquide Mittel, Zahlungsmitteläquivalente, kurzfristige Geldanlagen und sonstige Barbestände |
Geschäfts- und Betriebsentwicklung
Versicherungsgeschäft
Die versicherungsbezogenen Erträge stiegen im Jahresvergleich um 80,5 % und gegenüber dem Vorquartal um 15,4 % auf 1,33 Milliarden CNY. Der Betriebsgewinn des Segments stieg im Vergleich zum Vorquartal um 20 % auf 180 Millionen CNY.
Die Kundenakquisition blieb dynamisch. Die Zahl der Neukunden stieg gegenüber dem Vorquartal um 32,3 %, während die Erstjahrprämien aus langfristigen Versicherungen um 33,4 % zulegten. Produkte für Kunden mit Vorerkrankungen generierten Erstjahrprämien von 310 Millionen CNY, und Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherungen trugen 84 Millionen CNY bei.
Waterdrop baute das Angebot an Produkten mit niedrigeren Zugangshürden weiter aus. Zu den neuen Angeboten gehörte Rongyi Bao, das vom Unternehmen als langfristiges Produkt für schwere Krankheiten beschrieben wird, welches keine Gesundheitsangaben erfordert und eine fünfjährige garantierte Verlängerbarkeit bietet. Zudem erweiterte das Unternehmen Jixing Gaozhao um die Abdeckung spezifischer Krankheiten mit lebenslangem Schutz ohne Gesundheitsprüfung.
KI-Anwendungen in allen kundenseitigen Szenarien generierten Erstjahrprämien von fast 100 Millionen CNY. Die durch den KI-Krankenversicherungsexperten vermittelten Erstjahrprämien stiegen gegenüber dem Vorquartal um 25,6 %. KEYI.AI hatte bis zum Quartalsende mehr als 13.000 Risikoprüfungsfragen beantwortet, während die Zahl der vom KI-Super-Pre-Sales-Assistenten betreuten Nutzer im Vergleich zum Vorquartal um knapp 50 % zulegte.
Medizinisches Crowdfunding und klinische Studien
Zum 30. Juni 2026 hatte Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding 74,7 Milliarden CNY für 3,82 Millionen Patienten gesammelt, mit Spenden von rund 499 Millionen Unterstützern. Das Unternehmen entwickelte seine KI-basierten Risikokontrollen bezüglich Vermögensverschleierung, Identitätsrisiken und Unstimmigkeiten in den eingereichten Unterlagen weiter.
Der Bereich digitale Lösungen für klinische Studien rekrutierte im Laufe des Quartals mehr als 1.500 Patienten, was einem Anstieg von 54 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr entspricht und die Gesamtzahl der Patienten auf über 17.000 brachte. Die Patientenzahl bei chronischen Krankheiten stieg um 80 %, wenngleich das Management anmerkte, dass diese Studien im Allgemeinen höhere Screening-Ausfallraten aufweisen und ein präziseres sowie schnelleres Patienten-Matching erfordern.
Die Plattform E-Find schloss im Laufe des Quartals 167 neue Projekte ab. Die Zahl der Pharmaunternehmen und Auftragsforschungsinstitute, die mit der Plattform zusammenarbeiten, überstieg 255.
Aktionärsrendite
Der Verwaltungsrat genehmigte eine Bardividende von 0,03 US-Dollar pro ADS bzw. 0,003 US-Dollar pro Stammaktie, zahlbar an die zum 9. Oktober 2026 eingetragenen Aktionäre. Die Gesamtausschüttung wird auf voraussichtlich rund 10,8 Millionen US-Dollar geschätzt und soll Anfang November erfolgen.
Waterdrop genehmigte zudem ein Aktienrückkaufprogramm von bis zu 50 Millionen US-Dollar für die folgenden 12 Monate. Zum 31. August 2026 hatte das Unternehmen seit dem Start seines ersten Rückkaufprogramms kumuliert 62,9 Millionen ADS für rund 120 Millionen US-Dollar zurückgekauft.
Prognose des Managements
Für das Gesamtjahr 2026 strebt das Management ein Wachstum des Gesamtumsatzes von mehr als 40 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr und einen Anstieg des Betriebsgewinns von über 10 % an.
Das Unternehmen rechnet damit, das dynamische Tempo bei der Kundenakquisition im zweiten Halbjahr 2026 und im gesamten Jahr 2027 beizubehalten. Das Management geht davon aus, dass der Wert der aktuellen Kundenakquisition über den Kundenlebenszyklus hinweg schrittweise durch Verlängerungen, Upselling und Cross-Selling realisiert wird.
Waterdrop geht davon aus, dass die Gesamtquote der F&E-Aufwendungen stabil und in einem aus Sicht des Managements angemessenen Rahmen bleibt, während gleichzeitig mehr Fachkräfte und Ausgaben für Token in den Bereich KI verlagert werden. Die Ausgaben können mit zunehmender Nutzung steigen, vorbehaltlich einer strengen Disziplin bei der Kapitalrendite (ROI) je Anwendung.
Risiken und zu beobachtende Bereiche
- Die Vertriebs- und Marketingaufwendungen stiegen kräftig, da Waterdrop die Investitionen in Drittanbieter-Traffic-Kanäle erhöhte. Zeitpunkt und Umfang des Ertrags dieser Ausgaben für die Kundenakquisition bleiben wichtige operative Einflussfaktoren.
- Der den Aktionären zurechenbare Reingewinn ging im Jahresvergleich trotz höherer Umsätze und eines gestiegenen Betriebsgewinns zurück, was Steuerpositionen sowie einmalige Gewinne und Verluste widerspiegelt.
- Das Management gab an, dass Medienberichte über die Durchsetzung bestehender Steuerregeln auf Policendividenden die kurzfristige Kundenstimmung gegenüber Hongkonger Versicherungen beeinträchtigt hätten, wenngleich es dieses Thema nicht als neue Richtlinie betrachtet, die gezielt auf diesen Markt abzielt.
- Klinische Studien zu chronischen Krankheiten verfügen zwar über größere Patientenpools, weisen jedoch auch höhere Screening-Ausfallraten auf, was die Anforderungen an Genauigkeit und Geschwindigkeit des Matchings erhöht.
- Der tragbare KI-Büroassistent und die damit verbundene Smart-Hardware-Initiative von Waterdrop befinden sich noch in einer frühen Testverkaufsphase. Laut Management sind die finanziellen Auswirkungen derzeit gering.
Höhepunkte der Analysten-Fragerunde
Hongkonger Versicherungen und Besteuerung von Policendividenden: Das Management bezeichnete die jüngste Aufmerksamkeit als Durchsetzung bestehender Steuerregeln und nicht als neue Richtlinie, die speziell auf Hongkonger Versicherungen abzielt. Es räumte eine kurzfristige Auswirkung auf die Kundenstimmung ein, betonte jedoch, dass Nachfragetreiber wie die Allokation in mehreren Währungen, der Zugang zu globalen Gesundheitsressourcen und die Nachfolgeplanung intakt blieben.
Versicherungen für Personen mit Vorerkrankungen: Waterdrop sieht diese Kategorie als nachfragegetriebene Wachstumschance. Die Strategie kombiniert differenzierte Risikoprüfungs- und Schadenabwicklungsstrukturen mit KI-basiertem Matching nach Gesundheitszustand, Alter und Kundenszenario. Das Management identifizierte die Abdeckung von Vorerkrankungen, mittel- bis hochpreisige Krankenversicherungen sowie Produkte in Kombination mit Gesundheitsmanagement- oder Altenpflegedienstleistungen als Bereiche mit starkem Potenzial.
KI-Kommerzialisierung: Das Management plant nicht, KI primär als eigenständiges Geschäft zu kommerzialisieren. Es geht davon aus, dass sich der Wert der KI durch höhere Konvertierung, Umsatzwachstum und operative Effizienz in den Bereichen Akquisition, Risikoprüfung, Beratung und Schadenabwicklung zeigt.
Ausgaben für Kundenakquisition: Laut Management besteht das Ziel nicht einfach darin, die Akquisitionskosten zu senken, sondern das Matching von Produkten zu Kunden sowie die Konvertierung mithilfe von KI zu verbessern. Waterdrop plant, seine Reichweite weiter auszubauen und gleichzeitig längerfristige Erträge aus Verlängerungen und Cross-Selling anzustreben.
Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz zu den Quartalszahlen
Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz
Ausführungen des Managements
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by for Waterdrop Inc.'s Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Tracy Lee. Please proceed, Ms. Lee.
Tracy Lee
Thank you, operator. Dear investors and analysts, this is Tracy Lee from Waterdrop Investor Relations. Please note that discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of U.S. Private Securities and the Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but not limited to those outlined in our public filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.
Also, this call includes discussion of certain non-GAAP measures. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP.
Joining us today on the call are Mr. Shen Peng, our Founder, Chairman and CEO; Mr. Ran Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business; Mrs. Li Jieru, Finance VP, Head of Strategy and Capital Markets.
Certain members of our management team will deliver their remarks in Mandarin, followed by an English translation. Moreover, a webcast replay will be available on our Investor Relations website.
I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Shen Peng. Please go ahead.
Peng Shen
Dear investors and analysts, thank you for joining Waterdrop's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. In this quarter, we maintained growth momentum and achieved a total revenue of CNY 1.45 billion, up 72.8% year-over-year and the net profit attributable to our ordinary shareholders of CNY 130 million. Since the first quarter of 2022, we have maintained profitability for 18 consecutive quarters.
Segment-wise, our insurance business continued to optimize user acquisition and conversion, driving 80.5% year-over-year revenue growth. Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding had accumulated [indiscernible] medical funds for 3.82 million patients as of the quarter end. Our digital clinical trial solution business performed strongly with quarterly patient enrollment up over 50% year-over-year. This growth trend were underpinned by deep integration of AI across our core business scenarios. As of the end of June, the company has filed 88 large language model patents, including 10 of them overseas.
With strong performance and cash reserves, we continue to prioritize shareholder returns. Our Board recently approved 2 new initiatives. Firstly, the Board has approved a cash dividend of $0.03 per ADS or $0.003 per ordinary share payable to holders of record on October 9, 2026. The aggregate dividend payment is approximately $10.8 million with payments to be made in early November.
Second, the Board approved a share repurchase program of up to $50 million over the next 12 months. Since the initial program launched in 2021, we have repurchased approximately 62.9 million ADS for $121 million as of August 31, 2026.
The company remains committed to sustainable development and to getting back to society in meaningful ways. As of June 30, 2026, Waterdrop Charity platform has partnered with 119 public charitable organizations and launched more than 15,600 charity programs.
Waterdrop remains focused on growth and investment in core businesses. We expect our current incremental investment to continue translating into solid user base and future product potential. We always regard technology as a core driver of this company's growth. Today, our AI capabilities are actively expanded across the platform, enabling us to better capture growth opportunities in our existing businesses and further sharpen our competitive edge. At the same time, we are actively piloting new AI-driven initiatives for global markets and have made early progress in [indiscernible] markets. For full year of 2026, Waterdrop targets more than 40% year-over-year growth in total revenue and over 10% growth in operating profit.
This concludes our overview of Waterdrop's business performance. Now we will walk you through each of our business segments in more detail.
Wei Ran
Hello, everyone. This is Ran Wei. Let me first update you on our insurance business. In the second quarter, insurance-related income reached CNY 1.33 billion, up 80.5% year-over-year and 15.4% quarter-over-quarter. Operating profit was CNY 180 million, up 20% from the previous quarter. With continued refinement in our AI-driven user insight and conversion capabilities, newly acquired customers rose 32.3% sequentially. The first year premiums of long-term insurance grew 33.4% sequentially as we capture market demand for insurance this quarter.
On the product side, our core strategy remains improving the affectability of insurance products. This quarter, we delivered several new products in line with this direction, including the launch of Rongyi Bao, the market's first long-term critical illness insurance product that requires no health disclosure and offers 5-year guaranteed renewability. We also expanded our Jixing Gaozhao product metrics, which now includes the market first specified disease insurance offering lifetime coverage with no health disclosure. During this quarter, products for users with pre-existing conditions contributed CNY 310 million FYP and disability insurance at CNY 84 million.
On the service side, we adopted differentiated scenario-based operations across customer touch points. In this quarter, AI applications across our user-facing interaction scenarios helped generating nearly CNY 100 million in FYP. Among them, AI Pro insurance generates FYP in millions each month. FYP facilitated by our AI Medical Insurance Expert rose by 25.6% sequentially. In WeCom scenario, we executed our strategies directly from the demand identification and user profiling to key moment engagement and batch operation contributing over CNY 10 million in FYP during this quarter.
Long-term insurance sales, the value of AI ultimately comes down to expanding what our life planners can do. As of quarter end, our underwriting assistant KEYI.AI had answered more than 13,000 underwriting questions. Since its launch, our AI Super Pre-Sales Assistant has constantly outperformed human life planners on annual premium per lead. And the number of users it served grew nearly 50% sequentially. Powered by multi-agent collaboration, our AI conversion model captures user preference from natural language interaction, turning them into durable profiles we can draw on over time and proactively surface topics tailored to each user, effectively extending the reach of every life planner we have.
That concludes our update on the insurance business for the second quarter.
Next, let me briefly update on Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding and Healthcare businesses. As of the end of June 2026, Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding had cumulatively contribution from around 499 million donors up to 3.82 million patients and raised a total of CNY 74.7 billion. This quarter, we continue to upgrade our AI driven risk control models, further improving asset concealment detection and sensitive identity detection. By combining semantic analysis of ID information, medical materials and user-generated content, the upgraded engine can better identify heating inconsistency and improve risk control efficiency.
In our health care business, our performance exceeding expectations across several key metrics. We enrolled more than 1,500 patients in this quarter, up 54% year-over-year and cumulative patient surpassing 17,000. Growth was driven by the higher matching efficiency and stronger enrollment capability. Oncology projects remain our core focus, while chronic disease projects are growing most of the sequential growth this quarter. Although chronic disease studies have a larger patient pool, they typically carry a high screening failure rates and place greater demand on matching precision and speed.
Chronic disease enrollment increased 80% year-over-year in the second quarter, further validating our enrollment ability in high screening failures enrolling. Meanwhile, our proven enrollment track record is translating into deeper and broader trust among patient partners. In this quarter, E-Find Platform signed 167 new products and the number of pharmaceutical companies and CROs we partnered with surpassed 255. Going forward, we will continue to optimize operational efficiency and work with our partners to advance digitalization across the clinical business progression.
This concludes our update on the Crowdfunding and Healthcare businesses.
Jieru Li
Hello, everyone. This is Li Jieru. Next, I will walk you through our financial highlights for the second quarter of 2026. Before I go into details, please be reminded that all the numbers quoted here will be in RMB. And please refer to our earnings release for detailed information on our financial performance on both the year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis, respectively.
In the second quarter of 2026, Waterdrop delivered net operating revenue of CNY 1,448 million, up 72.8% year-over-year, maintaining a strong growth momentum. Our insurance business contributed about CNY 1,333 million in revenue, representing an 80.5% increase year-over-year. Net insurance businesses accounted for around 7.9% of total revenue, including CNY 63.6 million from Medical Crowdfunding service fees and CNY 35.2 million from our digital clinical trial solutions.
Total operating costs and expenses came in at about CNY 1,337 million in the second quarter, up 80.5% year-over-year. Operating costs were CNY 537 million, increasing 29% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by business scale expansion, including an increase of around CNY 63.8 million in cost of referrals and service fees as well as an increase of CNY 21.4 million in short message service costs and CNY 11.2 million in personnel costs, respectively.
Sales and marketing expenses reached nearly CNY 638 million compared with CNY 199 million in the same quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase mainly reflect -- the year-over-year increase mainly reflected our active step-up in public domain traffic investment with marketing expenses for third-party traffic channels increasing by about CNY 450 million and marketing-related professional technical service fees increasing by around CNY 21.8 million. G&A expenses were CNY 93.4 million, up 27.2% year-over-year, mainly due to an increase of CNY 33.3 million in allowance for credit losses. This was partially offset by decreases of nearly CNY 10.5 million in personnel costs and share-based compensation expenses.
R&D expenses were CNY 68.8 million, up 32.4% year-over-year. The increase was mainly driven by cloud server fees, token fees and other IT support expenses, which rose by about CNY 11.1 million as well as an increase of CNY 6.3 million in personnel costs and share-based compensation expenses.
For this quarter, operating profit reached about CNY 111 million, up 14.3% year-over-year and 39.2% quarter-over-quarter. However, due to tax-related items and nonrecurring gains and losses, net profit attributable to shareholders was around CNY 126 million, down 10.3% year-over-year, but up 27.9% quarter-over-quarter.
As of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and other cash positions totaled about CNY 2.653 billion. Our cash reserves maintains ample and provide solid support for both business investment and shareholder returns.
In terms of shareholder returns, since the launch of our first share repurchase program, we have cumulatively repurchased 62.9 million ADS for approximately USD 120 million as of August 31, 2026. And recently, the Board approved the sixth share repurchase program under which we plan to repurchase up to $50 million over the next 12 months and also approved the sixth cash dividend of approximately USD 10.8 million.
Overall, both the quality and scale of growth in our core businesses improved this quarter. The continued deployment of AI across every scenario in our business is becoming an important driver of efficiency gains. Meanwhile, we are expanding proactively while investing prudently in new initiatives in global markets, which for now have very limited impact on our current period financial results. As these initiatives reach a larger scale, we will keep the capital markets informed in a timely manner. In the future, the company will remain committed to disciplined strategic investments and continue creating long-term value for users and shareholders.
That concludes the company's financial results for the second quarter of 2026. We will now move on to the Q&A session.
Tracy Lee
[Operator Instructions] We now proceed to take our first question, and it comes from the line of Amy Chen of Citi. Her question is, in terms of the Mainland Chinese business in Hong Kong, media have reported that Mainland tax authorities may tax policy dividends. Has management seen any change either in the international business or domestic business?
Wei Ran
Regarding recent market attention, our reading that what we are seeing reflects the enforcement of tax rules that have long been in place rather than a new policy specifically targeting Hong Kong insurance. In the near term, the media coverage have some effect on our customer sentiment as the differentated value of Hong Kong insurance products like multicurrency allocation, access to global health care resources and inheritance planning are clear and fundamental drivers of the Hong Kong insurance market has not changed.
Turning to the drivers of Mainland China insurance market today, the growth is driven by a rising health protection awareness, policy tailwinds for commercial health insurance, continued product innovation and the structural shift of household savings into long-term assets such as insurance in the current low interest rate environment.
Waterdrop serves as diversifying the customer base across multiple markets and multiple service models and our business mix remains solid, and we're confident in serving user demand wherever it rises.
Tracy Lee
We will now take our next question from [indiscernible] of CICC. The question is, we have noticed that several insurers have recently launched health insurance products targeting customers with preexisting conditions. How does management evaluate this opportunity in this category? And what is product strategy in this area?
Wei Ran
As checkups become more common, the chronic illness and living with pre-existing conditions are far more typical. So a clean standard life is actually quite rare. And traditional health care insurance have a long focus on healthy lives and moving the people with pre-existing conditions still go unprotected. The industry consensus is clear, we're shifting from ensuring more healthy people to protecting the health of more people. This is both the real demand side opportunity and a clear path of commercial insurance expanding its coverage. And early practice with federal-level inclusive health plans, that logic is moving to more the commercial medical insurance, critical illness insurance, disability insurance and others. This is not simply diluting underwriting, it is segmenting the disease risk and building differentiated underwriting and claims. So the certain risk can actually be written and paid. For Waterdrop, lowering coverage threshold is central to our product strategy.
On the supply side, we break the demand down by scenario, age and condition, and co-design terms and coverage with our insurer partners. On the acquisition side, we use platform and AI insights to match the right products to the right customer. So people with pre-existing conditions can actually find something that works for them.
Longer term, our view is that health cover for people with pre-existing conditions can become more like auto insurance, people can actually buy it, claim on it and renew it. Accessibility and sustainability will have to move together.
Tracy Lee
We will now take our next two questions from [indiscernible] of Guotai Junan International. The question is, is there a clear time line for AI agent to start generating commercial value? And how will AI investment impact on R&D expenses ratio going forward? And what other new initiatives is the company currently exploring?
Peng Shen
As previously introduced, our AI is planning across four value chains: acquisition, risk screening, and claims, and it grows series by stage. We are not commercializing AI as a strong stand-alone business and its value will show up in our top line growth and bottom line growth we deliver. And as we introduced earlier in the user targeting and conversion, our AI directly support the user computation and the purchase decision, giving nearly CNY 100 million in FYP.
And in our long-term insurance advisory tools like our KEYI.AI and our AI Pre-Sales Assistant can help our life planners work more efficiently and efficiently and close more cases. On our operation, our AI customer service and quality inspection application have fully absorbed the actual volume as we scale.
In our R&D side, the overall R&D ratio is stable, but we are actively shifting resources towards AI, both in the talent and in token cost. As usage scales, the spend will grow naturally, but we are disciplined about ROI under each scenario, and we will keep the overall ratio to a reasonable range.
And turning to our new initiatives, we are incubating a portable AI office assistant, a smart hardware product that leverage our AI know-how, in-house R&D and China's supply chain strength. It is in pilot sales across major global markets with some encouraging early feedback that said it's still an early stage and its financial impact is limited for now. And the experience we are gaining along the way, both for the business and for the company overall is generally valuable.
Tracy Lee
We will now take our next question from Kate Liu of UOB Kay Hian. Her question is, from product and supply perspective, which insurance category does the management view as having strongest growth potential?
Wei Ran
There are two forces that reshaping our health insurance like the raising health protection awareness and aging population. So the market is shifting from standardized products to more tailored to actual needs. Demand driven coverage, including our insurance for pre-existing conditions, mid- to high-end medical insurance and products bundled with health management and elderly care services. A demand that traditional products never really served is being unlocked. We will keep building in this area. And this category play right into the strength we have built through our online platform. We can reach broadly and target precisely leveraging our AI capability and spot protection gap and specific customer groups, matching them with the right products and deliver better, faster service at the point of user consultation. So we will keep building on what we are uniquely good at.
Tracy Lee
Okay. We will now take our next question from [ Xinyu Mo ] of China Securities. The question is, noticing the strong growth in Q2, could you walk us through your recently customer acquisition investment outcomes and what we can expect on the cost side for the rest of 2026 and into 2027?
Peng Shen
We are still in an investment circle in the user acquisition in Q2, and that speed is already show up in the numbers like insurance revenue and operating profit both grew further from the last quarter. And the new users were actually up more than 30% sequentially. This is a combined result of better reach out and conversion and product supply.
And in terms of the user acquisition strategy, we are -- actually we are not simply pursuing the cost reduction. What matters most for us is how we leverage AI capability to better align our product supply with our user profile and improving conversion efficiency. So currently, AI has been embedded across the entire process from our customer acquisition to service and is continually improving our efficiency across our core scenarios.
For the second half of 2026 and the full year 2027, our strategy direction remains consistent. We continue to expect to maintain an active user acquisition pace, exceeding our reach to target customer segments and broadening user acquisition coverage. And at the same time, we expect the user value generated by the current period acquisition to be gradually realized through renewals and upsells and cross-sells over the sequential user life cycle.
Tracy Lee
We have received no further questions online, and this concludes our Q&A session for today. Thank you to all the investors and analysts for joining us today.
Betsy, operator, back to you.
Operator
We are now approaching the end of the conference call. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
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