Waterdrop Inc Q2 2026 Earnings Call - AI-Driven Insurance Growth Outpaces Costs

Conference Operator: Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by for Waterdrop Inc.’s second quarter 2026 financial results earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the management’s prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. 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, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Thank you, operator. Dear investor and analyst, this is Tracy Lee from Waterdrop Investor Relations. Please note that the 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 are not limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. Also, this call includes discussion of certain non-GAAP measures. Please refer to our earnings release for reconciliation between non-GAAP and GAAP.

Joining us today on the call are Mr. Shen Peng, our founder, chairman, and CEO, Mr. Yuan Wei, director and GM of insurance business, Mrs. Li Jie Ru, 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 reply will be available on our investor relations website. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Shen Peng. Please go ahead. 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 a 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 has cumulatively raised medical funds for 3.82 million patients as of the quarter end. Our digital clinic autonomy solution business performed strongly, with quarterly patient enrollment up over 50% year-over-year. These growth trends were underpinned by a 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. Segment-wise, our insurance business continued to optimize user acquisition and conversion, driving 80.5% year-over-year revenue growth. Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding has cumulatively raised medical funds for 3.82 million patients as of the quarter end. Our digital clinic autonomy solution business performed strongly, with quarterly patient enrollment up over 50% year-over-year.

These growth trends were underpinned by a 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 two 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 the 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 fixed 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 giving 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.

Shen Peng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Waterdrop Inc.: 水滴持续聚焦重点的增长和投入。我们预期当前增长投入将持续转化为坚实的用户基础，以及未来的利润空间。我们相信科技是公司的发展核心引擎。当前AI能力已深度嵌入各个业务平台，使我们能够更精准地把握住既有业务中的不断增长的市场需求，巩固并增强竞争壁垒。与此同时，我们也在积极地孵化面向全球的AI驱动的新业务，并在局部市场已经取得了初步进展。面向2026年全年，我们预期收入同比增长40%以上，营业利润同比增长10%以上。以上是水滴公司的整体业绩表现。接下来我们将会展开介绍各业务的情况。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Waterdrop remains focused on growth and investment in core businesses. We expect that our current incremental investment to continue translating to solid user base and future product potential. We always regard technology as a core driver of the company’s growth. Today, our AI capabilities are deeply embedded 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 select 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.

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 大家好，我是冉炜，我来汇报一下保险业务的进展。二季度保险业务相关收入达到3.3亿元，同比增长80.5%，环比提升16.4%。业务经营利润约1.8亿元，环比提升20%。基于AI模型，在用户需求洞察与转化上的持续打磨，转化效率环比优化。季度内，新用户环比增长32.3%。长险方面，凭借需求洞察和多元供给能力，我们及时承接住了本季度分红储蓄型产品的需求窗口，带动长险保费环比增长33.4%。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Hello, everyone. This is Quan Wei. Let me briefly update you on our insurance business. In the second quarter, insurance-related income reached 1.33 billion CNY, up 80.5% year-over-year and 15.4% quarter-over-quarter. Operating profit was 180 million CNY, up 20% from the previous quarter. With continued refinement in our AI-driven user insight and conversion capabilities, newly acquired customers grew 32.3% sequentially. The first year premiums of long-term insurance grew 33.4% sequentially as we capture market demand for endowment insurance this quarter.

Shen Peng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Waterdrop Inc.: 在供给端，提升保险产品的可及性是我们在产品端持续发力的主题策略。本季度在这个方向又有多款产品落地。重疾险方向，我们推出了业内首款免健康告知五年保障续保的长期重疾险产品，容易保，涵盖超百种重大疾病，并可附加意外身故与伤残责任。同时拓宽既有高照系列产品举证，新增业内首款终身免健康告知的特定疾病保险。二季度，我们的带病体贴的产品贡献保费约3.1亿元，智能险贡献保费约8,400万元。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: On the product side, our core strategy remains improving the accessibility of insurance products. This quarter, we delivered several new products in line with this direction, including the launch of Rongyi Bao, the market first long-term critical illness insurance product requiring no health disclosure and offering five-year guaranteed renewability. We also expanded our Jixing Gaozhao product matrix, which now includes the market first specified disease insurance offering lifetime coverage with no health disclosure. During this quarter, products for users with preexisting conditions contributed CNY 310 million FYP and disability insurance at CNY 84 million.

Shen Peng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Waterdrop Inc.: 在服务端，我们针对不同触达方式做了差异化的场景运营。本季度，低频交互场景AI应用整体辅助实现保费近亿元，其中小程序首页的AI专业保有效沉淀自然流量，月度带动百万级保费承单。在交互深度更高的语音场景中，AI医疗险专家转化效果更为突出。三季度辅助实现保费环比增长25.6%。喜庆服务场景中，从需求挖掘、跨场景位到关键节点触达和批量推送，AI可以直接承载策略的执行，将运营益处传到到位。季度辅助实现相关保费超1,000万元。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: On the service side, we’ve adopted differentiated scenario-based operations across customer touchpoints. In this quarter, AI applications across our user-facing interactions scenarios helped generate nearly CNY 100 million in FYP. Among them, AI Pro Insurance generates FYP in millions each month. FYP facilitated by our AI medical insurance experts rose by 25.6% sequentially. In WeCom scenario, AI executed our strategies directly from the demand identification and user profiling to key moment engagement and batch outreach, contributing over CNY 10 million in FYP during this quarter.

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 在承险销售方向，AI的价值最终落在顾问产能的释放上。截至季度末，核保助手累计回答核保问题已突破1.3万次。AI超级寿险小助理自上线后单项产能持续领先人工，季度内承接用户比例提升至近50%。多智能体协同下的AI转化模型，能够从自然语言交互中捕捉用户偏好，训练为可跨周期调用的特征，并主动触发匹配的热点议题，有效延伸顾问的服务半径。以上就是二季度保险科技业务相关的情况。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: In long term insurance sales, the value of AI ultimately comes down to expanding what our life planners can do. As a part in our underwriting assistant KEYI.AI had answered more than 13,000 underwriting questions since its launch. Our AI super sales assistant has constantly outperformed human life planners on annual premium per lead. And the number of users in third grown nearly 50% sequentially. Powered by multi agent collaboration, our AI conversion model captures user preference from natural language interactions, turning them to doable profile we can draw on over time, and proactively surface topics tailored to each user, effectively extending the range of every life planner we have. That concludes our update on the insurance business for the second quarter.

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 接下来我来汇报一下筹和医药业务在二季度的表现。截至2026年6月底，水滴筹捐款人数累计约4.99亿人，累计受助患者达到382万人，累计筹款金额约747亿元。本季度我们继续聚焦AI的风控模型，重点推进两个关键模块的迭代进展。一是资产隐瞒识别模块。原有方式中，风控策略更多依赖基于业务经验人工设定的规则。本季度，我们进一步扩大AI语音理解的能力的应用深度，以模型协同的方式，对身份证信息、医疗材料与用户生成内容进行联合语音分析，识别房产、车产以及收入等维度的隐瞒信息，并由AI风控模型对信息的真实性与关联性做出研判，自动识别其中可能存在的资产状况隐性矛盾。升级后的风控模型，体系相较原有规则覆盖更全面，抓取更精准，审核效率显著提升。二是敏感身份识别模块。水滴筹通过社交媒体信息、文案素材、提问等要素进行联合语音分析，系统可识别有高话题性身份的群体，并据此及时调整舆情风险评估与升级。基于AI模型对职业与收入的曲线推断，该模块目前无需依赖人工维护的先验规则，即可完成对案例发起人身份的自主识别，可以有效地将潜在风险拦截在发酵之前。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Next, let me briefly update on Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding and healthcare businesses. As of the end of June 2016, Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding has cumulatively contribution from around 499 million donors, helped 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 hidden inconsistency and improve risk control efficiency.

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 二季度医药业务经营表现全面超预期，三季度入组患者超1500名，同比增长54%，累计服务患者突破17000人。本季度核心增长的驱动力是体外效率与交付能力的提升。基于材料结构化能力与AI匹配模型的迭代，平台能够处理更复杂的入组标准，覆盖更多低发病种特征，季度内进一步释放产能。病种结构方面，肿瘤方向为水滴预约基本盘，继续贡献核心体量，慢病方向则驱动本季度主要增量。慢病方向虽患者基础大，但项目普遍筛败率高，对于招募平台的匹配精度和速度要求高。三季度慢病入组患者同比提升80%，有力证明了平台在高效筛败率场景的稳定交付能力。与此同时，预约口碑的积极正向转化为更深更广的合作信任。二季度131药新增项目达167个，合作药企及CRO突破255家。未来我们会全面做好经营效率优化，致力于与合作伙伴共同提升临床试验环节的数字化水平。以上是筹和医药业务的相关情况。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: In our healthcare businesses, our performance exceeded expectation across several key metrics. We enrolled more than 1,500 patients in this quarter, up 54% year-over-year, and cumulative patient served surpassing 17,000. Growth was driven by the higher matching efficiency and a stronger enrollment capability. Oncology projects remain our core focus, while chronic disease projects have driven most of the sequential growth this quarter. Although chronic disease studies have a larger patient pool, they typically carry high screening failure rates and place greater demands on matching precision and speed. Chronic disease enrollments increased 80% year-over-year in this second quarter, further validating our enrollment ability in high screening failure enrolling. Meanwhile, our proven enrollment track record is translating into deeper and broader trust among partners. In this quarter, E-Find Platform signed 167 new projects, and the number of pharmaceutical companies and CROs we partnered with surpassed 255.

Li Jie Ru, Finance VP, Head of Strategy and Capital Markets, Waterdrop Inc.: Going forward, we will continue to optimize operational efficiency and work with our partners to advance digitalization across the clinical business precision. This concludes our update on the crowdfunding and healthcare businesses. Hello, everyone. This is Liz Lu. 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. 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 RMB 1,448 million, up 72.8% year-over-year, maintaining a strong growth momentum. Our insurance business contributed about RMB 1,333 million in revenue, representing an 18.5% increase year-over-year.

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Net insurance businesses accounted for around 7.9% of total revenue, including RMB 63.6 million from medical crowdfunding service fees and RMB 35.2 million from our digital clinical trial solutions. Total operating costs and expenses came in at about RMB 1,337 million in the second quarter, up 80.5% year-over-year. Operating costs were RMB 537 million, increasing 29% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by business scale expansion, including an increase of around RMB 63.8 million in cost of referral and service fees, as well as an increase of RMB 21.4 million in short message service costs and RMB 11.2 million in personnel costs, respectively. Sales and marketing expenses reached nearly RMB 638 million, compared with RMB 199 million in the same quarter of 2025.

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 RMB 450 million and marketing-related professional technical service fees increasing by around RMB 21.8 million. G&A expenses were RMB 93.4 million, up 27.2% year-over-year, mainly due to an increase of RMB 33.3 million in allowance for credit losses. This was partially offset by decreases of nearly RMB 10.5 million in personnel costs and share-based compensation expenses. R&D expenses were RMB 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 RMB 11.1 million, as well as an increase of RMB 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 non-recurring 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 reserve maintains ample and provides solid support for both business investments 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 $120 million as of August 31, 2026.

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 $10.8 million. Overall, both the quality and scale of growth in our core businesses improved this quarter. The continuous deployment of AI across every scenario in our business is becoming an important driver of efficiency gains.

Li Jie Ru, Finance VP, Head of Strategy and Capital Markets, Waterdrop Inc.: 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, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Okay. Thank you, Jieru. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star two. In addition, this conference is being webcast live on the ChinaVenture platform. If you are joining through the platform, you may also submit your questions in writing there. Okay. We will 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 international business or domestic business?

Translator/Moderator, Translation and Moderation, Waterdrop Inc.: 目前我们第一个问题来自于花旗分析师Amy Chen，她的问题是近期关于港险内地访客保单收益征税的讨论比较多，想请教下管理层如何解读，对公司在内地保险以及国际化业务的影响。

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 感谢Amy的提问，这个问题我来回答一下。关于近期市场关注的境内居民保险收益征税的信息，我们理解这是既有个税规则的落实，并非针对香港保险的新政。短期内相关媒体报道确实对部分客户心态造成了一定影响，但香港保险产品在多币种配置、全球医疗、财富传承等方面的差异化价值是非常明确的。在满足对应客户群的相关需求上仍然具备吸引力。港险市场的底层支撑逻辑是没有变化的。境内人寿险市场的当前核心增长驱动力来源于广大居民健康保障意识的持续增强，商业保险的多重政策利好和产、业、担持续的保险产品创新，以及当前低利率环境下居民储蓄向保险等长期稳定资产迁移的结构性趋势。而水滴公司覆盖多元客户群、多市场和多服务模式，产品业务组合非常稳健，无论客户需求落在每个产品品类，我们都有信心和能力做好承接与服务。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: Regarding recent market attention, we are 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 has some effect on our customer sentiment. But the differentiating value of Hong Kong insurance products, like the multi-currency allocation, access to global healthcare 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 a 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 are confident in serving user demand wherever it rises. We will now take our next question from Tao Chen of CITIC Securities. 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 Waterdrop’s product strategy in this area?

Translator/Moderator, Translation and Moderation, Waterdrop Inc.: 下一个问题来自于中信证券分析师陈涛，他的问题是：近期业内不少保司推出带病体健康保险，想请教下管理层如何看待这一细分市场的发展机遇，以及水滴如何在规划这类产品的产品策略方面。

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 感谢陶总的提问。从大趋势上来讲，随着体检越来越普及，慢性病、带病生存也越来越常见，统计学意义上的零瑕疵的完美标的其实已经很少。而传统健康险长期更擅长承保健康人，大量已病人群、慢病人群的保障需求是客观存在的。所以行业共识比较清楚，就是要从更多保健康人转向保更多人健康。这既是需求侧的机会，也是商保补充支付扩大覆盖面的确定性方向。带病体产品最典型的早期实践是各地的惠民保。现在已经逐步拓展到商业医疗险、重疾险、失能险等更多商保产品险种。这种延伸不是简单降低投保门槛，本质上是在细分疾病风险的基础上，建立差异化的承保与理赔模型，实现定向可保可赔。降低投保门槛是水滴公司在产品定性策略上持续发力的主线。供给端，我们会按照多场景、多年龄层、多病种去识别需求重点，和保司共同设计更优的承保条件，加入范围。同时在获客端，借助互联网平台在AI用户洞察方面的优势，让对的用户买到他适合的保险产品。中长期来看的话，随着未来医保和商保数据逐渐打通，保司和中介将有能力把分工模型和服务能力做得更深。未来带病体健康险将有机会更接近车险这样的大众化保险，人人可投保，可理赔，可续保。我们也坚定地相信带病体健康险在未来会更可及的同时，也做到更可持续。以上。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: As checkups become more common, 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 has long focused on healthy lives, but millions of people with pre-existing conditions still go unprotected. The industry consensus is clear: we are shifting from ensuring more healthy people to protecting the health of more people. This is both a 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 now moving to more 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 product 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. Okay, we will now take our next two questions from Guotai Junan International. The question is: Is there a clear timeline for AI agent to start generating commercial value? And how will AI investment impact on R&D expense ratio going forward? And what other new initiatives is the company currently exploring?

Translator/Moderator, Translation and Moderation, Waterdrop Inc.: 现在我们收到两个来自于国泰君安国际分析师的问题，请教下管理层AI agent商业化价值产生是否有明确的时间线，AI投入对研发费用率有什么样的影响，以及目前公司还有哪些新方向正在努力探索吗？

Shen Peng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Waterdrop Inc.: 感谢提问。关于我们这个AI的投入和商业化价值的衡量，包括这个公司在做的一些创新型的业务，我整体来回答一下。如前面这个业绩发布的时候，我们也介绍过，我们公司的这个AI的能力其实是嵌入到我们的核心业务，尤其是像保险业务的获客和保理赔等各个业务环节当中去的。所以我们看待AI商业化以及AI价值呢，也是基于各个环节的具体的提效空间或者是增量空间的不同来去做衡量。那整体来说，我们还是希望能够通过AI能力和AI工具的全面融合，最终还是能够提升公司整体在财务上的收入增长的能力和利润创造能力。所以我们认为AI agent包括AI应用的价值，最后还是会体现在公司整体的这个业绩的交付上，我们不会有一个单独的这个AI板块的单独的这样商业化的区分。那也像前面说过，我们在不同的这个服务场景下，其实用AI的方式会不同，比如说我们在获客和阶段转化的场景，那AI其实现在是可以直接参与用户关于保险的咨询和购买的决策的。那这个季度内，这一类的场景整体辅助实现了保费已经接近一亿元了。那在场景的这个转化的，尤其是我们服务顾问的服务场景下，AI的工具主要是能够帮助这些顾问去提升他们的处理信息和展现的效率，然后能够间接地助力转化，也能够去释放他们的产能。那这边我们的AI的工具，比如说也有这个叫核保助手，可以到AI，包括超级寿险小助理，这个都在业务中，在日常的经营中在落地。那在中后台的运营支持的场景方面，我们的AI质检和AI服务等应用也已经是在全量的运营，基本上在全面承接我们业务规模扩张这个周期内带来的服务量的增长。关于我们在AI上的投入，我看问题有问到，就是公司的研发费用方面，我们整体的研发费用率确实整体来看还是在比较稳定的一个区间内的。但实际上从拆开来看，我们还是会在费用的结构上去做一些主动的调优，那主要还是把研发资源更侧重于AI前沿科技的投入上面去做倾斜。那这里面去包括我们在算法和模型相关人才梯队的一些建设，也包括我们在支撑AI应用落地所需要的一些token相关的成本的投入。那我们预期后续随着AI应用交易量的持续提升，这份投入肯定还是会预计保持一个自然的增长。那与此同时，我们从财务管理的视角整体也会去评估在各个场景下，这个AI功能带来的投入产出的效果，把整体的研发费用率还是维持在一个合理的区间内。那这个是公司整体在AI上的应用的落地，包括价值的衡量，以及我们在研发费用率的投入上面的情况。然后还有我看也有问题问到我们的创新的业务，其实一直以来我们都还是非常关注是怎么基于我们自身的，包括在AI应用端，我们自己所探索积累下来的一些能力和我们自己To C的服务和运营的能力，能够面向更广泛的行业和市场，寻找时代创新的机会。那目前我们在做的呢，其实还是依托在自有业务服务场景下打磨出来的AI Agent knowhow，还有我们自有的研发能力，当然也结合了中国在全球的供应链体系内的独特的优势，我们也在孵化一个定位是随身AI办公助手的智能硬件产品。目前已经在全球主要市场进行了试点的销售，也收到了一些比较初步的积极的反馈。但整体来看，这个业务还是处于比较早期的阶段，还是需要一个周期去验证。包括当前对公司的财务报表的影响也是非常有限的。那我们也相信这个过程中积累的经验，无论是对这项业务本身，还是对公司整体的能力的沉淀都是非常有价值的。以上。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: 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 standalone business, and its value will show up in our top-line growth and bottom-line growth we deliver. As I introduced earlier, in the user targeting and conversion, our AI directly supports user consultation and purchase decisions, driving nearly CNY 100 million. Our long-term insurance advisory tools like KEYI.AI and our AI pre-sales assistance that help our life planners work more efficiently and close more cases. On our operation, our AI customer service and quality inspection applications 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 talent and in token cost. As usage scales, the spend will grow naturally.

We are disciplined about ROI under each scenario, and it will keep the overall ratio to a reasonable range. Turning to our new initiatives, we are incubating a portable AI office assistant, a smart hardware product that leverages our AI agent 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 is still at an early stage and its financial impact is limited for now. The experience we are gaining along the way, both for the business and for the company overall, is generally valuable. 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 the strongest growth potential?

那下一个问题来自于大华继显的分析师Kate Liu，她的问题是：目前从供给和产品的角度而言，请问管理层认为哪些险种相对更具有发展潜力？

Yuan Wei, Director and GM of Insurance Business, Waterdrop Inc.: 好，感谢Kate的提问，这个问题由我来回答。随着居民健康意识的提升、人口老龄化的加深，健康险正在从标准化产品走向更细分、更贴近实际需求的方向发展。比如说带病体人群的个人医疗险、中高端医疗险，以及涵盖健康管理、养老服务等权益属性的产品。以上这些其实是我们也是市场看好、判断一致方向的产品。那过去传统产品覆盖不到或者服务不够精细的需求，正在被不断地挖掘出来，我们也会持续关注以上几个大方向的机会。同时，这几类产品和我们在线渠道积累的能力是比较契合的。一方面，互联网保险平台规模化的精准获客能力能够打破空间和地域的限制，提高保障的可及性。另一方面，基于长期积累的数据和技术优势，我们能够识别存量人群的保障缺口，更好地为用户匹配合适的产品。也能针对这类产品普遍存在的咨询需求，提供响应更快、也更好的服务。我们会结合自身的平台特点，在这些方向做相应的布局。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: There are two forces that reshaping our health insurance, like the raising health protection awareness and an aging population. The market is shifting from the standardized product to more tailored to actual needs. Demand-driven coverage including our insurance for previous conditions, lead to high-end medical insurance and products bundled with health management and elderly care services. A demand that traditional product never really served is being unlocked. We will keep building in this area. This category play right into the strengths we have built through our online platform. We can reach broadly and target precisely, leveraging our AI capability and spot protection gaps in specific customer groups, can matching them with the right products and deliver better, faster service at the point of user complication. So we will keep building on what we are uniquely good by.

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 recent customer acquisition investment outcomes and what we can expect on the cost side for the rest of 2026 and into 2027?

Translator/Moderator, Translation and Moderation, Waterdrop Inc.: 我们的下一个问题来自于中信建投分析师莫心雨，她的问题是：关注到公司在二季度取得良好增速，那关于获客端的投入以及近期的成果，以及2026年下半年和2027年的成本展望，是否可以让管理层详细说明一下。

Shen Peng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Waterdrop Inc.: 好的，感谢莫心雨的提问，这个问题我来回答一下。公司确实在这个季度，就是二季度，仍然是处于一个获客投入的周期里，所以可以看到我们的保险的业务的收入和营业利润都在2026年一季度的基础上有进一步的环比的增长。那这个季度内，实际上我们的新用户数环比也增长了30%以上。这个整体也看起来也是我们在用户触达，然后这个销售转化和产品供给多方面的综合的持续迭代的一个最终呈现的结果。那从获客策略上，我们不会去单纯地追求成本的单边的下降，更多还是在看在AI能力的加持下，是不是能够更好地去匹配产品供给和用户画像特征，来提升我们的转换能力。前面也介绍的比较多，就是AI如何嵌入到我们从获客到服务的全流程中，怎么在各个核心场景中去助力。那具体到2026年的下半年和2027年的全年的周期，我们其实在这个战略的方向上还是保持连续的，所以我们还是会预期一个比较保持积极的获客节奏，然后提升我们对于目标人群的覆盖，让更多的用户去了解这个保险以及保险配置的价值。同时我们也预期，在当前这个获客投入的周期内带来的这个用户，会在后续的整个的用户的生命周期内，通过我们想说当前保单的续保，包括说不同险种的复购，或者是这种为家庭去配置的这样的家保的这个用户的购买决策中，把这个用户生命周期的价值逐步的得以释放。这个是我们看当前的获客节奏，包括后续的这个获客的投入，和我们对于更中期用户增长带来的用户价值的综合的一个观点。

Tracy Lee, Investor Relations Manager, Waterdrop Inc.: We’re 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 grow further from the last quarter. The new users were actually up more than 30% sequentially. This is a combined result of better reach out and conversion and product supply. In terms of the user acquisition strategy, actually we are not simply pursuing the cost reduction. What matters most of us is how we leverage AI capability to better align our product supply with our user profile and improving conversion efficiency. 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 of 2027, our strategy direction remains consistent.

We continue to expect to maintain an active user acquisition pace, expanding our reach to target customer segments, and broadening the user acquisition coverage. At the same time, we expect the user value generated by the current period acquisition to be gradually realized through renewals and up-sells and cross-sells over the sequential user life cycle. We have received no further question online, and this concludes our Q&A session for today. Thank you to all the investors and analysts who joined us today. Betsy, operator, back to you.

Conference 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.