Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Huize Holding Limited Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the management's prepared remarks, we will have a question- and- answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded and a webcast replay will be available. Please visit Huize's IR website at ir.huize.com under the Events and Webcasts section. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Mr. Kenny Lo, Huize's Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator. Hello everyone, and welcome to our earnings conference call for the third quarter of 2023. Our financial and operating results were released earlier today and are currently available on both our IR website and Newswire. 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 we will be making forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will discuss non-GAAP measure today, which are more thoroughly explained in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. Joining us today are our Founder and CEO, Mr. Cunjun Ma, COO, Mr. Li Jiang, Co-CFO, Mr. Minghan Xiao, and Co-CFO, Mr. Ronald Tam. Mr. Ma will start the call by providing an overview of the company's performance and operating highlights for the first quarter of 2023. And Mr. Tam will then 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. 大家好，欢迎大家参加慧择2023年的第三季度的业绩发布会电话会。2023年第三季度，宏观经济逐步复苏，经济活动已渐渐起色，但国际关系挑战仍在，资本市场不时出现起伏和波动，保险行业持续深化产品结构调整和转型。险企的资产端主要受股市的低迷、利率的下行、减值损失等持续影响，导致行业整体的投资收益承压。前三季度，人身险行业的净利润同比普遍地呈下滑的趋势，市场正走上有起有跌但长期正向的恢复之路。在动荡的市场下，慧择继续发挥产品创新能力，叠加全渠道的线上和线下的获客与服务能力，以及平台上优质存量客户的基础。第三季度，我们继续取得了稳健的成绩，全平台促成的总保费人民币是12.5亿元，总营收人民币是2.9亿元，实现净利润人民币2017万元，环比增长43%，经调整的净利润为人民币1849万元。连续4个季度我们实现了盈利。 Hello everyone, and thank you for joining Huize's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. In the third quarter of 2023, the macro economy gradually recovered, with economic activities showing signs of improvement. However, international relationship challenges persisted, and capital markets erratically experienced fluctuations. The insurance industry continued to deepen product structural adjustment and transformation. The assets of insurance companies were primarily affected by the continuous impact of the stock market downturn, declining interest rates, and ongoing impairment losses, resulting in adverse impacts to the overall industry investment income. In the first three quarters, the net profit of the life insurance industry generally showed a year-on-year downward trend. The market cap is experiencing ups and downs, but is on a long-term positive path towards recovery. Amidst these external uncertainties, we focus on leveraging our competitive edge in product innovation, omni-channel distribution, customer acquisition capabilities, and high-quality customer profile, and reported another set of solid results. In the third quarter, total gross written premiums, or GWP, facilitated on our platform reached RMB 1.25 billion, and we recorded total revenues of RMB 290 million. Our GAAP net profit increased 43% sequentially to RMB 20.17 million, and we achieved our fourth consecutive quarter of non-GAAP net profit with RMB 18.49 million in the third quarter. 从保费的结构来看，规模结合全险种布局以及全渠道的分销能力，共促成三季度首年保费为人民币6.4亿元。那么在2023年前三个季度，累计首年保费为人民币22亿元，同比增加了54%。三季度，长期健康险新单保费约 为1亿元，同比增加了8%。储蓄险持续保持较强的增长状态，其中年金险新单保费人民币1.2亿元，同比增长高达2倍。得益于长期险的战略带来的雪球效应和高用户粘性，续期保费达到了人民币6亿元，同比增加7%，环比增加了25%。... 支撑我们在复杂形势下带来稳定的现金流，保持韧性的经营。惠择坚持长期险经营的策略，长期险占总保费比例为90.9%，连续16个季度占比超过九成。另一方面，平台的财产险业务得益于国内的经济活动的持续复苏。三季度平台客户在短期健康险、财产及意外险等短期险的需求提升。三季度短期险新单保费达RMB 1.1亿元，同比上升了50%。 In terms of product mix, we continue to leverage our diversified product offering and solid omni-channel distribution capabilities. First year premiums or FYP facilitated on our platform reached RMB 640 million in the third quarter. Across the first nine months of 2023, our FYP has increased by 54% year-over-year to RMB 2.2 billion. The FYP of our long term health products increased by 8% year-over-year to approximately RMB 100 million in the first quarter. Our savings products maintained strong growth momentum during the quarter, with the FYP of our annuity products tripling year-over-year to RMB 120 million. We are seeing a strong snowball effect as a result of our strategic focus on long-term insurance products and the high thickness of our users. Our renewal premiums in Q3 reached RMB 600 million, up 7% year-over-year and 25% sequentially, generating steady cash flow to support our resilient business performance. Moreover, the GWP contribution to long-term insurance products was 90.9%, marking the 16th consecutive quarter where this figure has exceeded 90%. Meanwhile, the continued recovery of the domestic economy boosted demand for short-term health, P&C, and accident insurance products in the third quarter. As a result, the FYP of our short-term insurance products increased by 50% year-over-year to RMB 110 million. As of the end of the third quarter, the platform's cumulative insured users were approximately 9.12 million, and the new insured users this quarter were 223,000. In the third quarter, among users who insured long-term insurance, the proportion of users in second-tier and above cities reached 67.5%, the average age was 33.9 years old, maintaining a young, high-quality, and high-stickiness user profile. In terms of first-year premium, the average for long-term insurance policies was approximately RMB 4,600, the average for savings insurance policies increased to approximately RMB 50,000, year-over-year increase of 23%. As of the end of August, the monthly cumulative continuation rate for the 13th month and 25th month of long-term insurance was both above 95%, continuing to maintain a relatively high level in the industry. As of the end of the third quarter, our cumulative number of insurance clients reached 9.12 million, representing an addition of 223,000 new customers. Among clients who purchased long-term insurance in the third quarter, 67.5% were from higher tier cities, and their average age was 33.9 years old, reflecting our focus on young, loyal, and high-quality customers. In terms of FYP, the average ticket size of long-term insurance products was approximately RMB 4,600, while the average ticket size of savings products was approximately RMB 50,000, up by 23% year-over-year. As of the end of August, our cumulative persistency ratios for long-term insurance in the 13th and 23rd months remained at industry high levels of more than 95%. 截至三季度末，慧择与121家保险公司保持稳定的合作关系。同时，我们持续开发兼具性价比和高质量的定制保险产品。9月至今，慧择上线了小淘气二号少儿重疾险，携手中国太平洋人寿保险推出了新相守尊享版增额终身寿险，并迭代发布了守护者六号的重疾险。我们洞察到80后、90后用户对未来养老的需求越来越高。最近，我们推出了大家慧选养老年金险，以及金满一组5号养老年金险，帮助客户做好高质量的养老财务规划，实现更远期、更持续、更稳健的财富保值增值。慧择持续推出多元化的定制保险产品，从少儿险、老年险、医疗险和寿险等各方面照顾我们的用户保险需求，为他们及家庭提供周全的保障。 As of the end of the third quarter, we have cooperated with 121 insurer partners. Meanwhile, we continue to co-develop various cost-effective and high-quality customized insurance products with our insurer partners. Since September, we have launched 小淘气 number two, a customized child critical illness insurance product, and Guardian Critical Care number six, a customized multiple benefit critical illness insurance product. We also partner with China Pacific Life Insurance to jointly launch-... Jin Xiang Xiu Premium, and increasing whole life insurance product. With the increasing retirement planning awareness of the millennials, we recently launched two annuity products, Dajia Huixuan and Jin Man Yi Zu number five, to help young customers develop sustainable long-term wealth management and retirement plans. We strive to provide comprehensive protection for our clients and their families through a broad range of product offerings, including insurance products for children and the elderly, as well as various long-term life insurance products and health insurance products. 在A端，将会不断地为代理人带来技术创新。期间，我们再度为内核能力带来了提升，进一步深化Relink功能，实现系统自动识别商机，精准推送商机的功能，高效地辅助了业务顾问更好地服务保险代理人。Relink识别系统功能目前已经覆盖了31个场景，以及108种商机。本季度，由A端业务线促成的新单保费达到约RMB 89.56 million，同比增长38%。今年首9个月已经达到了RMB 320 million，超过了去年全年的RMB 200 million。 In the 2A segment, we continue to empower insurance agents with innovative technologies. During the period, we upgraded our Relink System with new functions, providing automated opportunity identification and alerts, helping business consultants assist insurance agents more effectively and efficiently. The upgraded Relink System is currently able to identify 31 business scenarios and hundreds of types of business opportunities. In the third quarter, FYP facilitated by the 2A business reached RMB 89.65 million, up 38% year-over-year. In the first nine months of 2023, the FYP facilitated by the 2A business amounted to RMB 320 million, surpassing the total FYP facilitated by this segment in the whole year of 2022. 在C端，慧择坚持以客户需求为导向，瞄准客户更多样、更细分的保险需求，提供高质量和精准的服务。通过月度推广、节日福利和日常关怀等活动，向新老用户和高价值用户等群体进行精准推送，共吸引50,000多用户参与活动，并成功转化投保用户30,000多人。 In the 2C segment, we remained committed to our customer-centric approach and continue to provide high-quality and effective services that meet our customers' diversified needs across various insurance segments. In the third quarter, we continue to hold various brand promotions and customer engagement activities aimed at attracting new users, activating existing users, and engaging high lifetime value users. We successfully reached more than 50,000 users through these efforts and achieved more than 30,000 sales conversions. 第三季度，慧择持续深化老用户的运营，深度分析他们的保险需求，提供精准的服务，以实现加保复购和向上销售，最大化用户全生命周期价值。第三季度，长期险复购客户占比达到了38.4%，同比上升了4.7个百分点。高用户粘性持续为我们贡献更加稳定的营收，带动获客成本下降。第三季度，毛利率提升至35.3%，同比提升了6个百分点。另一方面，公司的组织效率持续地优化，总营业费用同比下降了27%，其中管理费用同比下降了50%，管理费用率同比下降了5个百分点，充分展现整体运营效率的提升。 In the third quarter, we continue to strengthen our user engagement efforts and enhance our up-selling capabilities to maximize the lifetime value of our customers. In the third quarter, 38.4% of our long-term insurance product customers were repeat purchases from existing customers, up 4.7% points year-over-year, reflecting the stickiness of our client base. This high level of customer loyalty has helped stabilize our revenue stream and lower our customer acquisition costs. In the third quarter, our gross profit margin increased by 6% points year-over-year to 35.3%. Meanwhile, the company's organizational efficiency continued to be optimized, driving a 27% year-over-year decrease in total operating expenses. In particular, we reduced our general and administrative expenses by 50% year-over-year, resulting in a 5% point decline in the G&A expenses to total revenue ratio, demonstrating overall improvement in our operational efficiency. 未来，我们将恪守客户第一的初心。以定制化为产品设计思路，用心洞悉用户，继续为市场带来创新的产品，精准匹配客户健康、意外、养老和-... 储蓄计划和财富传承的需求，为行业创造客户与保持双赢的价值。同时，我们会把握行业数字化转型的机会，积极展开布局，深化数字技术金融的应用，并进一步推动线上线下的深度融合，以科技赋能代理人和团队，推进行业高质量的发展。 Going forward, we will leverage our in-depth customer insights to develop a broad range of innovative, customized products that satisfy the full spectrum of our customers' needs, from healthcare, accident, and retirement protection to financial and asset planning. We are committed to fostering a win-win dynamic between insurance companies and insurance customers through our digital products and service platform. At the same time, we will seize the opportunities presented by the industry's digital transformation, deepen the application of digital technology in finance, and further promote the O2O integration of our insurance service ecosystem. This aims to empower agents and teams with technology, facilitating high quality development within the industry. 接下来，请我们的CFO Ronald给大家详细介绍一下业绩和财务数据。 This concludes my prepared remarks for today. I will now turn the call to our CFO, Mr. Ronald Tam, who will provide an overview of our key financial highlights for the third quarter. Thank you, Kenny and Mr. Ma, and good, good evening, everyone. In the third quarter, China's insurance market has entered a transitional phase with respect to the product structure, following the suspension of 3.5% products from 1st August. Despite this significant industry-wide challenge, the total GWP facilitated on our platform has remained fairly stable year-over-year at about RMB 1.2 billion in the third quarter. Thanks to the resilience of our omni-channel distribution platform, integrating online and offline channels, a large established and high quality customer base, and a strong insurance product innovation capabilities that we have. We are consistently acquiring new customers more efficiently, with 223,000 net new customers added to the ecosystem in Q3, bringing the total number to more than 9.1 million at the end of the quarter. During the quarter, we continued to record a non-GAAP net profit of about RMB 118 million, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of profitability. This strong bottom line performance is being driven by the successful execution of our key business strategies. First, we maintained our steadfast focus in long-term insurance products, with GWP contribution from these products remaining at above 90%. Second, we continue to empower insurance agents through our omni-channel distribution platform, which product offerings and advanced technologies. Our 2A, 2C business line continued to deliver robust growth, generating total FYP of RMB 90 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 38%. Third, in our direct to C segment, we continue to target high quality, mass affluent young consumers and drive upselling opportunities across our customer base. In terms of FYP, the repurchase ratio of our long-term insurance products increased by about 5% points year-over-year to 38.4% in Q3. Lastly, we continue to focus on boosting operational efficiencies throughout our business, and that's reflected in improvements in our growth and operating margins. Key highlights and takeaways from our operating results include the following. Number one, total GWP increased by 32% year-over-year during the first three quarters of 2023, of which first year premiums and renewal premiums increased by 54% and 16% year-over-year, respectively. Two, our persistency, persistency ratio for long-term life and health insurance remained at an industry high level. As of August, the 13th and 25th month persistency ratios stood at above 95%. Third, the average ticket size for long-term savings insurance products increased by 23% year-over-year to about RMB 50,000. These positive metrics continue to reflect a high quality customer profile and our relentless, relentless efforts and success in tapping into the long-term lifetime value potential of our customers. In the third quarter, we sustained our market leading position in long-term insurance products. The FYP of our long-term health products increased by 8% year-over-year to RMB 104 million, while the FYP of our annuity products more than tripled year-over-year to RMB 116 million. We will continue to pursue a balanced product mix between the long-term health and savings categories to satisfy our evolving customer needs. We remain focused on tightening marketing channel costs and optimizing our organizational structure to improve our profit margin and efficiency. As a result, our operating costs in Q3 decreased by 24% year-over-year to RMB 189 million, leading to a strong improvement in our growth margin to 35%, as compared to 29% over the same period of last year, primarily driven by increased customer acquisition efficiencies and repurchases by existing customers on our platform. In Q3, our total operating expenses continued to decrease, falling by 27% year-over-year, and our operating expense ratio improved to 29% in Q3 from 33% in the same period of last year. And our GAAP and non-GAAP net profit figures were approximately RMB 20 million, RMB 18 million in Q3. As of the end of the quarter, we continue to maintain strong liquidity as our combined balance of cash and cash equivalents increased to RMB 258 million. We have continued to repurchase shares from the open market under our existing share repurchase program. As of the end of the September quarter, we have repurchased an aggregate of approximately 1.4 million ADSs to date, which continue to demonstrate our management's confidence in the business model and long-term growth prospects.... Moving forward, we'll continue to deepen the financial applications of generative AI, striving to enhance our product innovation and upselling capabilities. We'll further strengthen the integration of our online to offline ecosystem and empower our agents to acquire high quality customers and engage with clients more efficiently and effectively. We'll also continue to drive improvements in operating efficiency and optimize resource allocations across the business. We remain committed to expanding our market share and solidifying our position as a top-tier digital insurance product and service platform in the home market in China, as we strive to enhance shareholder value and achieve sustainable business growth. We are also investing in growth opportunities in the international market, with our Hong Kong operations now up and running and gaining good momentum. Having launched our first ever customized whole life insurance product earlier in August, with China Pacific Life Insurance Hong Kong, with an innovative product feature that facilitates underwriting in Hong Kong and retirement in the mainland. We are now working to expand into other attractive markets in the ASEAN region, and we are currently targeting to generate double-digit percentage of our group's revenues from our international markets within the next 12 months. With that, we'll now open up the call to questions. Thanks to, and over to you, operator. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question will come from CoCo Gong of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thank you so much for taking my question, and congratulations on a very good performance for the third quarter of 2023 in a very challenging environment. I have two questions today, if I may. So the first one would be about some of the regulation changes in China, especially on the broker channel, as well as some recent regulations on short-term health insurance. So how does the management perceive this change impact on our overall business? That just, you know, a little bit of a insight on maybe sort of the product mix change or product innovation or anything related would be much appreciated. And the second question would be about the critical illness demand. 'Cause, you know, we've talked about launching, like, the new critical illness product, but how are we seeing the sort of marginal changes in terms of the critical illness demand, given where, you know, the savings demand is very significant, but are we seeing any positive changes for the critical illness or protection type of product in mind, recently? Thank you very much. Thanks. Thanks, CoCo. It's Ron here. So two questions from you. The first one relating regulatory changes and how is that impacting the overall business? I think that's a very fair question, and it's very topical right now. I think there are multiple fronts of the business is being impacted by the recent regulatory changes. I think the most evident one would be the cessation of 3.5% products, and that has led to a somewhat a downturn in the overall market. I think across the board, we have seen you know, FYP numbers coming down quite a bit among the top tier companies, as well as I think the market channel checks. But I think slowly we have seen that, the demand recovery has commenced, starting after the October 1st holidays, after the National Day holidays. I think, we are seeing some momentum being regained into November. But I think that we are still a bit short of where we were for a normal month, you know, notwithstanding any special changes in the product structure that is driven by the regulatory changes. So in terms of product mix, I think we are seeing some channels or market demand for participating products. I think we're seeing some trends there. We do believe that participating products could be very interesting in the new environment, where it provides a relatively lower fixed guaranteed return, with, on top of that, a more of a variable return kind of profile to consumers. I think consumers still in strong demand for good savings product that could deliver good returns over the long term, and with a more of a protected kind of structure. So I think Participating Products could gain momentum, particularly in the new year. That's point number one. I think we're also seeing good demand from consumers on retirement annuities products. And with that, we have already launched, you know, at least two annuity products in the recent quarter, as I have mentioned in the opening remarks, with, you know, two insurance companies, targeting different segments of the population. So I think we are continuing to drive product innovation to capitalize on the changing customer preferences, subject to the regulatory changes that is already in place. The increasing sum assured products still are interesting. I think that provides a guarantee, you know, close to 3% kind of IRR, which should continue to be well received by the overall market when, you know, the declining risk environment is expected to continue in the mid- to medium-term. With respect to critical illness products, I think, on that, we have also publicly disclosed that we have around 8% year-over-year growth on the long-term health segment, which is primarily from critical illness products. So it's a slow recovery. But then we also are driving product innovation in this respect. We have launched different types of critical illness for different segments of the consumer base, for example, the child critical illness product that we have launched. So I think we continue to tackle, you know, a resumption of or recovery of consumer demand through delivery of, you know, high value, customized products. So that would be the answer to your first question. With respect to your second question, I think I also addressed that just now on the critical illness demand. So hopefully those, those are good answers to your questions, CoCo. Yeah, thank you very much. The next question comes from Yuyu Zhang of CICC. Please go ahead. Hi. My question is related to our new product strategy. We have launched many new insurance products so far this year. So under your observation, what are the most popular products? And by the way, how's the sales of MCV products? Could you share some more details? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Yuyu. So first question on which are the more popular products these days. I think we're seeing real, real-time data in our systems. I think, I think that, the top two or top three categories are probably, I think number one would be more, more towards retirement annuities, and these are the customized products that we have launched together with our partners. I think that is gaining the best momentum in the third quarter. We also, as I mentioned to CoCo's question just now, I think we are seeing, good demand as well in, participating products. So this is something a bit new, I think, some of our new trend. So this will be, the second category. I think with respect to MCV products we have launched a new product in August, so I think it still takes time for us to really you know ramp up our channels and push sales. But I think we're getting a decent market feedback on this innovative product, which enables you know Hong Kong residents or insurance customers in Hong Kong to enjoy privileges as to retirement in the mainland. I think this is a very innovative product structure, and I think that given time for the product to run I think that we will be achieving a pretty good sales on this. With respect to MCV, I think we are also getting momentum there because of our brand equity in mainland China, and I think we are also getting a good you know attention from incoming travelers. With respect to product mix there, I think mostly, as is, we have seen in other companies or other operators in the Hong Kong market, the strongest demand is probably still for savings products that is underwritten by Hong Kong or international insurance companies with brand name. So I think that's my answer to your second question. As a reminder, if you ask a question in Chinese, please translate it into English for the benefit of everyone on the call. Our next question comes from Amy Chen of Citi. Please go ahead. Hi. Congratulations on another profitable quarter. I have two questions here. The first one would be on guidance for next year. You touched a bit on the trend of product mix in the third quarter, and I want to, I wonder if you could share more color about your product strategy in 2024, and also what's your outlook in terms of brokerage income as well as on the earnings side? The second question is that we see that the company has made enormous efforts on containing operating costs through all funds. We see that effectively, the operating cost to income ratio has come down. I'm wondering if the management has a target for this ratio. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Amy. So with respect to your first question on guidance, right now we have not refreshed our guidance for the next year. I think we'll be giving guidance when we are coming up with the fourth quarter results for next year. I think we are still looking to strategize on the overall strategy for next year, so it's a bit early to tell now. In product mix, I think we can share a little bit more insights. I think in the new year, we're more likely to cooperate with larger sized insurance companies with respect to savings related products in particular. And we can also explore cooperation with Sino foreign joint venture companies that are involved in the savings category. And in particular, with respect to Participating Products, I think that we would very likely will be rolling out a customized product in that segment. Second, I think we'll still have a very strong focus on retirement and annuities products, with additional service, you know, tied to the insurance policies. So I think that's something that is in strong demand, and we are also able to drive differentiating product innovations in this to set us apart from the competition. So I think those two will be our strong focus for next year in terms of product strategy. And on cost, on the cost side, I think, it's always gonna be, top of our mind in terms of driving additional, efficiencies across the business, you know, across the organizational structure. So I think that, we'll continue to drive costs down. And I think there's always a further room to improve in that regard. Maybe, we have already done quite substantial cost cutting, already, year to date. But then I think, this is something that we will continue to be very focused on. Maybe we can squeeze out another few percentage points, there, but, you know, we'll continue to work hard on that, to drive profitability for the business. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Ron. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please wait while we reassemble our roster. Seeing no further questions at this time, I'll now turn the call back to Kenny Lo for any closing remarks. Thank you, operator. In closing, 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, feel free to reach out to us. Thank you for joining us today. This concludes the call. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.