Huize Holding - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Huize Holding Limited Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the management prepared remarks, we will have a question-and-answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded, and a broadcast replay will be available. Please visit Huize IRPC at ir.huize.com under the Events and Broadcast section. I would like to hand the conference over to your host today, Ms. Harriet Hu, Huize Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead, Harriet.

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Earnings Conference Call for the Second Quarter of 2023. Our financial and operating results were released earlier today and are currently available on both our IR website and in this slide. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call as well as the forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will discuss non-GAAP measures today, which are more thoroughly read in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. Joining us today are our founder and CEO, Mr. Cunjun Ma, COO, Mr. Li Jiang, CFO, Mr. Minghan Xiao, and co-CFO, Mr. Kwok Tam. Mr. Ma will start the call by providing an overview of the company's performance and operational highlights for the second quarter of 2023.

Mr. Tam will provide details on the financial results for the period before we open up the call for questions. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ma.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

大 家 好 ， 欢 迎 大 家 参 加 慧 择 二 零 二 三 年 第 二 季 度 的 业 绩 发 布 电 话 会 。 二 零 二 三 年 二 季 度 ， 宏 观 经 济 持 续 复 苏 态 ， 保 险 行 业 发 展 进 一 步 明 朗 ， 其 中 二 季 度 人 身 险 的 消 费 者 信 心 指 数 达 到 了 六 十 八 点 二 ， 高 于 二 零 二 一 年 和 二 零 二 二 年 的 同 期 水 平 。 慧 择 把 握 市 场 加 速 增 长 的 机 遇 ， 凭 借 长 期 险 战 略 的 优 势 ，

线 上 线 下 融 合 业 务 布 局 和 业 内 领 先 的 产 品 创 新 及 获 客 能 力 ，再 度 取 得 了 令 人 鼓 舞 的 成 绩 。 二 季 度 全 平 台 促 成 保 费 达 到 人 民 币 十 三 点 八 亿 元 ， 同 比 增 长 了 百 分 之 五 十 八 。 总 营 收 约 为 人 民 币 三 、 三 点 七 亿 元 ， 同 比 增 长 了 百 分 之 四 十 八 点 三 。 经 调 整 净 利 润 为 人 民 币 一 千 九 百 零 一 万 元 ， 连 续 三 个 季 度 实 现 了 盈 利 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Huize Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. In the second quarter of 2023, macroeconomy continued to recover and the operating conditions in the insurance industry continued to improve. The life insurance industry consumer confidence index reached 68.2 in the second quarter of 2023, which is higher than it was in the same period of 2021. Riding on this positive market trend and combined with our competitive edge in long-term insurance products, comprehensive online to offline integration and industry-leading product innovation and customer acquisition capabilities, we reported another set of encouraging results today. In the second quarter, total gross recent premiums or GWP facilitated on our platform reached RMB 1.4 billion, up by a considerable 68% year-over-year.

Our total operating revenue increased by 48.3% year-over-year to RMB 370 million. We also achieved our first consecutive quarter of non-GAAP net profit with RMB 19 million in the second quarter.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

从 保 费 结 构 来 看 ， 二 季 度 首 年 保 费 同 比 大 幅 增 长 百 分 之 八 十 五 点 二 ， 达 到 人 民 币 九 亿 元 。 续 期 保 费 稳 定 增 长 百 分 之 二 十 四 ， 至 人 民 币 四 点 八 亿 元 。 期 内 ， 会 得 把 握 储 蓄 险 需 求 集 中 爆 发 的 市 场 机 遇 ， 结 合 多 元 化 产 品 的 供 给 和 全 渠 道 分 销 能 力 ，

共 促 成 储 蓄 险 新 单 保 费 约 人 民 币 六 点 七 亿 元 ， 同 比 增 幅 达 到 了 百 分 之 一 百 三 十 六 。 长 期 健 康 险 的 新 单 保 费 约 为 一 点 四 亿 元 ， 同 比 增 长 了 百 分 之 十 点 四 。 二 季 度 长 期 险 占 总 保 费 比 例 为 百 分 之 九 十 三 点 六 ， 连 续 十 五 个 季 度 占 比 超 过 了 九 成 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

In terms of product mix, First Year Premiums or FYP facilitated on our platform increased by 85.2% year-over-year to approximately RMB 900 million in the second quarter. Renewal premiums continue to grow steadily, increasing by 24% year-over-year to RMB 480 million. During the quarter, amid the surge in demand for savings products, we leveraged our diversified product offerings and solid omni-channel distribution capabilities to capture the market opportunity. As such, FYP of our long-term savings products increased by 136% year-over-year to RMB 670 million in the second quarter. FYP of our long-term health product also increased by 10.4% year-over-year to RMB 140 million.

GWP contribution of our long term insurance product was 93.6%, marking the 15th consecutive quarter above 90%.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

在 实 现 高 质 量 增 长 的 同 时 ， 我 们 的 用 户 画 像 呈 现 年 轻 态 、 高 潜 力 和 高 粘 性 ， 且 用 户 价 值 不 断 提 升 。 截 至 二 季 度 末 ， 平 台 累 计 投 保 用 户 约 为 八 百 九 十 万 。 在 二 季 度 投 保 长 期 险 的 用 户 中 ， 二 线 及 以 上 城 市 用 户 占 比 百 分 之 六 十 六 ， 平 均 年 龄 为 三 十 四 点 四 岁 ， 以 首 年 保 费 计 ，

长 期 险 的 件 均 约 为 人 民 币 五 千 四 百 元 ， 同 比 提 升 了 百 分 之 五 十 六 点 四 。 储 蓄 险 的 件 均 大 幅 提 升 至 约 为 人 民 币 六 点 三 万 元 ， 同 比 提 升 了 百 分 之 四 十 三 点 二 。 截 止 五 月 底 ， 长 期 险 第 十 三 个 月 及 第 二 十 五 个 月 的 年 度 累 计 继 续 率 均 保 持 在 百 分 之 九 十 五 以 上 ， 继 续 保 持 行 业 较 高 水 平 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

While achieving high quality business growth, our customers remain young with high potential and high stickiness, and we continue to capitalize the lifetime value of our existing customers. At the end of the second quarter, our cumulative number of insurance clients reached 8.9 million. During the quarter, about 66% of our long-term insurance customers were from higher tier cities, with an average age of 34.4 years old. In terms of FYP, the average ticket size of long-term insurance products was approximately RMB 5,400, up by 56.4% year-over-year, while the average ticket size of savings products was approximately RMB 63,000, up by 43.2% year-over-year.

As of the end of May, our cumulative persistence ratios for long term insurance in the 13th and 26th month remained at industry high levels of more than 95%.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

截 至 二 季 度 末 ， 慧 择 与 一 百 一 十 家 保 险 公 司 保 持 稳 定 的 合 作 关 系 。 期 内 ， 我 们 持 续 优 化 投 保 险 期 的 产 品 布 局 ， 致 力 于 为 用 户 提 供 更 切 中 需 求 、 更 值 得 信 赖 的 保 险 产 品 。 在 与 平 安 健 康 险 、 平 安 财 险 相 继 推 出 了 长 相 安 医 疗 险 、 小 神 童 三 号 少 儿 意 外 险 后 ， 慧 择 再 与 泰 保 集 团 旗 下 的 多 家 公 司 达 成 了 深 度 战 略 合 作 。 六 月 ，

我 们 与 泰 保 产 险 签 署 了 战 略 合 作 协 议 ， 并 定 制 推 出 孝 心 安 三 号 老 年 人 意 外 险 ， 为 老 年 群 体 提 供 综 合 的 意 外 保 障 。 八 月 ， 我 们 与 泰 保 寿 险 香 港 公 司 签 署 了 战 略 合 作 协 议 ， 并 面 向 香 港 客 户 定 制 推 出 了 金 满 意 足 多 元 货 币 版 ， 率 先 实 现 香 港 承 保 ， 北 上 养 老 的 服 务 供 给 能 力 ， 为 推 进 粤 港 澳 大 湾 区 互 联 互 通 注 入 了 保 险 新 动 力 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

As of the end of the second quarter, we have cooperated with 110 insurance partners. During the period, we continued to optimize our product offerings from leading insurance companies, striving to develop more customized and reliable products for our users. Apart from our strategic partnership with Ping An Health Insurance and Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance to co-develop Chang Xiang An, a customized long term medical insurance product, and Xiao Shen Tong No. 3, a customized accident insurance product for children, respectively. We also strengthened our strategic cooperation with various subsidiaries of China Pacific Insurance Group. In June, we signed a new strategic partnership agreement with China Pacific Property Insurance and jointly launched Xiao Xin An No. 3, which is a comprehensive accident insurance product customized to meet the protection needs of the elderly.

In August, we signed a strategic partnership agreement with China Pacific Life Insurance Hong Kong and announced the co-launch of Jin Man Yi Zu Multi-currency, which is an increasing whole life insurance product targeting Hong Kong customers. This is an innovative product in the market, promoting the concept of underwriting Hong Kong and retirement in the mainland, representing a milestone in the development of cross-boundary insurance services in the Greater Bay Area.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

二 季 度 ， 我 们 持 续 深 化 线 上 线 下 融 合 战 略 的 布 局 ， 并 取 得 了 阶 段 性 的 成 果 。 截 至 目 前 ， 我 们 已 在 全 国 十 八 个 省 市 配 备 拥 有 监 管 认 可 的 销 售 资 质 的 分 支 机 构 ， 完 整 覆 盖 了 京 津 冀 、

江 浙 沪 和 珠 三 角 等 一 线 城 市 群 。 在 A 端 ， 慧 择 不 断 地 探 索 技 术 创 新 ， 以 丰 富 的 智 能 工 具 赋 能 代 理 人 。 期 内 ， 我 们 自 建 的 用 户 经 营 系 统 V-Link 热 链 接 系 统 上 线 ， 大 大 的 提 高 了 用 户 经 营 效 率 和 服 务 精 准 度 ， 使 代 理 人 能 够 轻 松 地 应 对 业 务 高 速 增 长 。...

和 交 易 用 户 数 量 不 断 提 升 带 来 的 服 务 压 力 。 未 来 ， 我 们 更 将 进 一 步 强 化 V-Link 系 统 的 功 能 ， 从 纯 人 工 经 营 线 索 升 级 到 AI 辅 助 人 工 经 营 线 索 。 第 二 季 度 ， 由 A 端 业 务 线 促 成 的 新 单 保 费 达 到 了 RMB 1.6 billion ， 同 比 增 长 了 2.7 times ， 环 比 增 长 了 1.1 times 。 上 半 年 ， A 端 贡 献 新 单 保 费 约 为 RMB 2.3 billion ， 已 超 过 去 年 的 全 年 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

In the second quarter, we continue to deepen the online to offline integration of our insurance service ecosystem, which continues to yield encouraging results. At present, we have opened branches with regulatory approval, sales qualifications in 18 provinces and cities across the country, with a full coverage in major Tier 1 localities, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. We have empowered independent agents with sophisticated intelligent tools.

During the period, we launched V-Link, a proprietary user management system that helps agents manage users more efficiently and effectively, enabling them to scale up businesses and customer bases with ease. Going forward, we will make further improvements to the V-Link system, upgrading it from manual lead management to AI-assisted lead management. In the second quarter, FYP facilitated by the 2A business, which RMB 160 million, up by 270% year-over-year, and 110% sequentially. In the first half of 2023, the FYP facilitated by the 2A business amounted to RMB 230 million, surpassing the FYP facilitated in the whole year of 2022.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

在 C 端 ， 慧 择 始 终 坚 持 以 用 户 为 中 心 ， 通 过 精 细 化 合 规 运 营 ， 为 不 同 类 型 、 不 同 群 体 的 用 户 做 好 需 求 及 风 险 识 别 、 产 品 匹 配 和 服 务 。 二 季 度 ， 我 们 针 对 新 老 用 户 、 高 价 值 用 户 和 家 长 用 户 等 群 体 ， 上 线 了 一 系 列 的 营 销 触 角 机 制 、 私 信 互 动 及 健 康 增 值 服 务 等 活 动 ，

共 吸 引 了 60,000+ 用 户 参 与 活 动 ， 并 成 功 转 化 投 保 用 户 20,000+ 人 。 与 此 同 时 ， 我 们 持 续 为 用 户 提 供 专 业 、 快 捷 、 高 效 的 理 赔 服 务 。 上 半 年 ， 慧 择 小 马 理 赔 协 助 结 案 37,000 件 ， 结 案 金 额 达 到 RMB 290 million ， 并 再 度 创 新 推 出 小 马 帮 赔 服 务 模 式 ， 拓 宽 服 务 边 界 ， 为 更 多 出 险 用 户 提 供 理 赔 协 助 的 服 务 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

In the 2C segment, we remain committed to our customer-centric approach and continue to fine-tune our operations to better recognize client needs and risks, and provide targeted products and service matching for various customer segments. In the second quarter, we launched a series of brand promotions and customer engagement activities, including company anniversary celebrations and various value-added healthcare services targeting existing and new users, high lifetime value users, and parent group users.

We successfully reached more than 60,000 users through these efforts and achieved more than 20,000 sales conversions. We also continue to provide users with professional and efficient claim assistance services. In the first half of 2023, the total number of insurance claim cases assisted by Huize reached 37,000, with a total claim settlement amount of approximately RMB 290 million. We further expanded the scope of our small claim services and offering claim settlement services to a wider range of users in need.

Cunjun Ma (CEO)

未 来 ， 慧 择 发 展 的 方 向 是 要 为 双 边 客 户 、 保 险 公 司 和 保 险 客 户 创 造 双 赢 价 值 ， 从 而 推 动 保 险 中 介 行 业 的 高 质 量 可 持 续 发 展 。 在 保 险 客 户 侧 ， 慧 择 将 不 断 地 孵 化 出 新 服 务 和 新 产 品 ， 持 续 发 力 用 户 深 度 经 营 和 线 上 线 下 融 合 。 我 们 相 信 ， 在 运 营 体 系 化 、 销 售 流 程 化 、

团 队 属 地 化 的 三 化 经 营 体 系 下 ， 用 户 将 可 以 根 据 自 身 的 需 要 和 偏 好 ， 自 主 选 择 在 线 上 或 线 下 接 受 一 站 式 的 保 险 服 务 。 在 保 险 公 司 侧 ， 慧 择 将 持 续 挖 掘 新 业 态 和 新 ， 新 动 能 ， 助 力 合 作 伙 伴 实 现 真 正 的 降 本 增 效 ， 打 造 优 质 稳 固 的 客 户 基 础 ， 输 出 有 品 质 有 规 模 的 保 险 业 务 。

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

Going forward, we strive to create a win-win dynamic for insurance companies and insurance customers, demonstrating the value added of insurance intermediaries and driving the high quality and sustainable development of the industry. For insurance customers, we will continue to enhance our products and service offerings and strengthen our user engagement and online to offline integration. With a further optimized operational system, sales process, and localized deployment plan, we believe Huize will be able to provide more flexibility to users to choose between online and offline one-stop insurance services. For insurance companies, we will continue to explore new industry dynamics and new growth drivers to help bring down operating costs and improve operational efficiency for our insurer partners, and empowering them to build a high quality customer base and deliver top-notch insurance services.

This concludes my prepared remarks for today. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Mr. Ron Tam, and he will provide an overview of our key financial highlights for the second quarter.

Ron Tam (Co-CFO)

Thank you, Mr. Ma and Harriet, and good, good evening, everyone, in the Asia time zone. In the second quarter, amidst further recovery in consumer confidence and household incomes, the insurance industry in China grew steadily. Sector-wide gross written premiums increased by 22% year-over-year to RMB 900 billion during the quarter. At Huize, we leverages on our O2O integrated insurance service ecosystem, and our business growth continued to significantly outpace the broader market. We have delivered a 58% year-over-year increase in total GWP facilitated on our platform, which reached RMB 1.4 billion in the second quarter. We have also added about 200,000 new customers to our ecosystem in the second quarter, bringing the total number to 8.9 million at the end of the June quarter.

During the quarter, we recorded a non-GAAP net profit of RMB 19 million, marking our third consecutive quarter of profitability and putting us on track to meet the upward revised full-year non-GAAP net profit guidance of RMB 15 million that we have issued in the last quarter. This can be attributed to the successful execution of our key business strategies. First, we continued our strategic focus on long-term insurance products, with GWP contribution from these products remaining about 90% for the 15th straight quarter. Second, we continued to target high quality, mass affluent customers and empower insurance agents through our omni-channel distribution platform, rich product offerings, and sophisticated technologies. Our 2A, 2C business line remained solid, with total FYP of RMB 156 million in the second quarter, representing a year-over-year increase of over 2x and a sequential increase of over 1x.

Third, we continued to place an emphasis on optimizing operational efficiency throughout our business, and this can be demonstrated by the improving operating leverage and profitability per quarter. Some key highlights and takeaways from this quarter's operating results include the following: Total gross written premiums increased by 58% year-over-year, reaching RMB 1.4 billion, and this growth was mainly driven by an 85.2% year-over-year increase in first-year premiums, or FYP, as well as a 24% year-over-year increase in renewal premiums. Our persistency ratios for long-term life and health insurance remained at a industry-high level. As of May, the 13th and 25th month persistency ratios are maintained at above 95% respectively. The average ticket size for our long-term savings and insurance products increased by 44% year-over-year to about RMB 63,000.

These positive metrics reflect our high quality customer profile and our relentless efforts to enhance upselling opportunities and tap into the lifetime value potential of our customer base. In the second quarter, we solidified our market-leading position in long-term savings products, in particular, the increasing sum assured whole life and retirement annuities product categories. The FYP of our long-term savings products surged by 1.4x year-over-year to RMB 665 million. The FYP of our long-term health products also increased by 10.4% year-over-year to RMB 139 million in the second quarter. Looking ahead, we anticipate to achieve a more balanced product mix between the long-term health and savings categories, in adaptation with the evolving customer needs.

The robust growth in FYP helped drive a 48% year-over-year increase in our total operating revenue, which reached RMB 368 million in the second quarter. We remained focused on tightening marketing channel costs and optimizing our operations to improve our margins and efficiencies. As a result, our operating costs in the second quarter increased at a slower pace than revenue, rising 40% year-over-year to RMB 244 million. This has led to a healthy improvement in our gross margin to 34%, compared to 30% in the second quarter of last year. In Q2, our total operating expenses continued to decrease, falling by 1.8% year-over-year, resulting in our expense to op- to revenue ratio improvement to 32% in the second quarter from 48% over the same period of last year.

Our GAAP and non-GAAP net profit figures were approximately RMB 14 million and RMB 19 million in the second quarter, respectively. At the end of the second quarter, we continued to maintain ample liquidity, as demonstrated by our combined balance of cash and cash equivalents of RMB 248 million. We have continued to repurchase shares from the open market under our existing share repurchase mandate, and as of the end of the second quarter, we have repurchased an aggregate of approximately 1 million ADSs, demonstrating our continued confidence in the business, prospects and our long-term growth prospects. Moving forward, leveraging our continued investments in generative AI technologies will further improve operational efficiencies across our business value chain, strengthening the integration of our O2O ecosystem, enriching our product and service offerings across all scenarios, and empowering our agent and insurance partners with technology enhancements.

These efforts should help us gain market share and solidify our position as a top-tier digital insurance product and service platform, and ultimately striving to enhance shareholder value and achieve sustainable business resilience. Now turning to our outlook for the year. While we remain cautiously optimistic regarding the macro and insurance industry outlook in China, in light of the better than expected results in the first half and our strong execution in acquiring high quality customers from the market, improving cost efficiencies and enhancing customer engagement, we once again revised our outlook guidance upwards, and currently expect to achieve a non-GAAP net profit of not less than RMB 60 million in 2023. And with that, we will now open up the call to questions. Thank you, and over to you, operator.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Please can you state your question in Chinese first, and English translation after? We are now taking the first question. Please stand by. The first question from Coco Gong from MS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Coco Gong (Analyst)

Hi. Oh, thanks. Hi, everyone. I'm Coco from Morgan Stanley. Congratulations to the management on the very good results. I have two questions. The 1st one would be on the product transition and product performances, potentially in the third quarter and 1st half of next year, because of the pricing interest rate, interest rate cut on basically August 1st. We're wondering if, you know, the management sees any sort of potential product transition and how the performances will be in third quarter. Because of the high base this year, how is management thinking about going forward into next year first half? That's the first question, and the second would be, what is the strategy in Greater Bay Area, given that, you know, the new products which launched with CPIC Life Hong Kong?

Overall, what would be the outlook and strategy for this opportunity area? Thank you.

Ron Tam (Co-CFO)

Thank you for the question, Coco. It's Ron here. Regarding the first question on the outlook for Q3, I think, indeed, the 3.5% pricing products have came off the shelves effective on August 1st. In Q3, we do have the month of July contributing to our Q2 results. We can say that the July sales numbers are quite strong across the board, and I think, as one of the leading participants in this industry, I think we also have benefited from good sales in July. In the fourth quarter, I think, over the next two quarters, I think the overall industry is going through an adaptation phase with respect to the product structure.

I think the mainstream opinions on this topic is highly, highly topical right now. A lot of people are discussing what's the, what's the more mainstream product that will be coming to the market in the next 2 quarters. I think a lot of the insurance companies now have rolled out the 3% and 0% pricing products already. This will be the traditional type products, increasing some assured, with guaranteed 3% or close to 3%, I would say. There's also a anticipation of rollout of participating products with variable returns and with a slightly lower 2.5% guarantee, but variable returns depending on the investment performance.

I think the whole industry is still going through this adaptation right now. It's a bit too early to tell, but we do think that the overall savings product category will continue to be well received by the average insurance customer in China, mainly because of the continued anticipation of a declining rate environment, leading to the relative attractiveness of these savings products will continue to have a appeal to customers versus other wealth management alternatives in China, for example, bank deposits and other wealth management products in the market.

Our anticipation is that the savings product category will continue to perform well, over the medium term and long term, in the short term, there will be a slight lukewarm market demand for such products, particularly on the back of the strong sales in the second quarter and the month of July itself. That will be the outlook for the product perspective. The second question on the Greater Bay Area, our business plans for ourselves. I think overall, you know, we have been in the industry for 17 years already, and we have the benefit of geographically being located in the center or the heart of GBA, in Shanghai, Shenzhen. We sit right in the center of the whole GBA region.

With the open up the borders of Hong Kong, this, this year, we are now capitalizing on this new opportunity on potential, you know, cross-border activities. This, this latest product launch that we have achieved with CPIC Hong Kong Life, is a good testament of our continued innovation to provide the right products for the customers in our respective markets. This marks our first foray into the Hong Kong market with this product targeting Hong Kong customers and also new immigrants into Hong Kong from China. These two set of customers are prime target customers for this product.

We, and we, and we do believe that with the long-term trends of retirement demand from the Hong Kong residents in the Greater Bay region, we believe that this product would address this, this market niche very, you know, precisely. We do have a very strong anticipation for the sales of this new product, the CPIC Hong Kong.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for your question. We're now taking the next question. The next question from Mindy Gao for CLSA. Please go ahead.

Mindy Gao (Research Associate)

Thank you for taking my question. This is Mindy from CLSA. My first question is about the gross margin trend. I wonder, how do you see the trend of gross margin in the second half and the rationale behind? My second question is about your overseas expansion plan. Can you share with us more color about what is this overseas expansion plan, and when do you expect to see a more meaningful revenue contribution from this part of business? Thank you.

Ron Tam (Co-CFO)

Thank you, Mindy. It's John here. 2 questions. The first question on our gross margin outlook. I think, we have been demonstrating that we have achieved cost efficiencies throughout our business lines. As a result, our gross margin for the second quarter has improved by almost 4 percentage points from same period last year. I think we continue to strive to maintain gross margins at the current level, through 3 main areas. One is we continue to have a very disciplined cost control on our marketing spend, on our customer acquisition, channel costs. We have actually been quite stringent on our direct acquisition budgets. We have been quite focused on harvesting our existing customer base as well.

In terms of repurchases, we have actually achieved a more than 3% repurchase rate from our 2C business line this quarter. This demonstrate that we have been able to achieve premium growth from our existing customer base, and we balance that very carefully with, you know, new customer acquisition spend to attract new customers. Secondly, I think we continue to invest in the technology, and we have been also deploying more capital into AI efforts. I think we are expecting to yield efficiency enhancements again on many aspects of our business across the value chain. That would be a second measure.

A combination of these measures and strategies will help us maintain our gross margins at the current level. That will be the answer to your first question. The second question on overseas expansion, Hong Kong is the first destination in terms of international strategy or expansion. Hong Kong is a natural expansion for our Mainland China Business, because Hong Kong, we do have a very good opportunity in the overall MCB business in the Hong Kong market. You know, this is a HKD 40 billion market pre-COVID, and we expect that to be around 80% or 100% recovery this year.

As a major player in the mainland Chinese insurance brokerage industry, with the brand recognition that we have with many of the Hong Kong local residents who have a linkage with mainland China, we believe that our brand equity will able to help us achieve a decent market share in the Hong Kong local market as well. We're targeting to become a top-tier broker in the Hong Kong market in the next 3 years, and to achieve a meaningful market share as well in the MCB business and also for the local Hong Kong market business. I think on the back of the Hong Kong expansion, we are looking into potential investment opportunities in Southeast Asia. We are now currently in the feasibility study stage.

We are in the preparation for a potential rollout of our business across the region. Right now we are still in the early phase of identifying opportunities and identifying potential joint venture partners in targeted countries in Southeast Asia.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for your question. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. Please press star one one if you wish to ask a question. We are now taking the next question.

Michelle Ma (Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question from Michelle Ma from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Michelle Ma (Analyst)

Hey, thank you for giving me this opportunity to ask. I, I'm actually quite optimistic. Just now, we also talked about some topics regarding AI. I just want to clarify how Ping An looks at insurance technology. We have also seen some industry giants actually invest huge amounts of capital, including Amazon. Then now maybe they will still go back to the insights they had earlier. In insurance technology, how do we see the advantage of being the first or the later mover? How, how do we think about this question in our board? Then, the second one is a small question. We have seen that, the numbers, right, this TCI is declining.

Our the overall premium growth is actually pretty good, including this new business value is also, the growth is also pretty good. If we compare it with Ping An, actually, we can see that some of our other costs are growing faster. This part, I just want to see, do we plan to control costs in the future, or are we maybe in a better position now and will expand some aspects? Actually, I, I also want to ask about our lower half of the year regarding our revenue, just a management guidance. I'll briefly translate.

Speaker 7

The first question is about our thoughts on InsurTech. For smaller players, should we think about like first mover or early mover advantage, or we should like follow the steps of those industry giants for InsurTech for InsurTech consideration. Just want to hear some of the management thoughts on this issue. The second thing is about the operating leverage, and we are seeing some deterioration in the operating leverage, but with I think a very promising net profit outlook for whole year and for the second half this year. We'll quickly return to a a path to continue expansion, or we should pay more attention to the cost control.

How about the revenue growth outlook in the second half? Thank you. Thank you.

Ron Tam (Co-CFO)

Thank you, Michelle. I'll take your question. The first question on AI. The way that we look at AI is we don't really see it as a first mover or second mover. The more pertinent question is, for AI to really work for any particular company in the respective industry vertical, the key prerequisite is you have data in the platform. You have the right data in the platform to help you deploy AI technology to increase to improve efficiency.

To that regard, I think, what we have is, we have over 17 years now of, of transaction data, and this encompasses, you know, pre-sales consultation, you know, conversations, because we have a real-time compliance monitoring system, as you, as you well know. We have a lot of daily conversations between our consultants and, and the end customers as data to be, to be fed into AI, you know, training models. We also have a lot of underwriting data. We have also claims processing data. As, as you understand, we have Xiao Ma Pay, the Xiao Ma Claim service, therefore, we actually have accumulated a lot of this data. All these are actually helping us-...

to effectively train any type of AI algorithms internally, so that we can potentially derive game-changing AI technologies to deploy in-house. I think that to the extent would be the answer to your first question. I think we have the natural advantage to deploy AI because we hold proprietary data within our ecosystem, within our platform. Hopefully, you know, over the next 6 to 12 months, we will be able to release to market or to announce to the market some milestone achievements in this regard. In relation to your second question also, some expenses might have creeped up in the second quarter, but we still intend to maintain cost discipline very rigidly.

To the extent that, you know, the macroeconomy in China, as everyone is well aware, is still where to be challenging, although overall it's in a recovery mode. I think most industry participants remain cautious on the outlook. We do think that the overall business dynamics with respect to Huize continue to be very solid and resilient and sustainable, as we have proven over the last, you know, a few years now, aside from COVID, where everything that needs to be happening online, and we have a natural advantage being an online making platform.

Over the last 1 year or so, when, you know, Chinese economy has been negatively impacted by, you know, you know, restrictions relating to COVID, leading to much dampening in consumer confidence and demand, we have been able to ride through the cyclical challenges and have emerged since the fourth quarter of last year, being profitable for 3 consecutive quarters. I think the overall trajectory is, in terms of medium long term, as an insurance intermediary, as a leading player in this, in this space, we have very, very positive outlook in the long term in terms of the market share of a digital brokerage like ourselves, with the increasing separation between, you know, the core, you know, the distribution and the product m- manufacturing in China.

The single-digit percentage market share of our insurance brokerage should go up to, you know, a more of a high double-digit, mid double-digit, as we have seen in the advanced economies. I think that will be the overall outlook on that, on that front. The second half of this year, we, we are construct-- we are constructive. I think there will be some product transitions in this period. Everyone is anticipating that. At the end of the day, I think it, it, it depends on what the customers in the market would demand.

I think that savings product will continue to be the mainstream product in the insurance industry, and we still hold a advantage in customizing the better and newer products with our insurance companies. We already have a backlog of new products to be launched in the Q3 and Q4, when the time is right, which will be suitable for the average customer in the new environment. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for your question. I will now hand the conference over to Miss Harriet Hu for closing remarks.

Harriet Hu (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. On behalf of Huize's management team, we would like to thank you for your participation in today's call. If you require any further information, please feel free to reach out to Huize IR team. Thank you all for joining us today. This concludes the call.

Operator (participant)

That concludes the conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.