Waterdrop, an Internet fund-raising platform that once captured a large number of users with the help of the free service fee model, has bid farewell to the free era.
Radar finance learned that since April 7, waterdrop has implemented a unified charging policy throughout the country. Fundraisers will be charged 3.6% of the handling fee by the platform, of which 3% is the platform service fee. The maximum for a single fund-raising project is no more than 5000 yuan, while 0.6% is the payment channel fee of the third-party payment platform.
“The purpose of charging service fees is to maintain the daily operation of the platform and user services and achieve sustainable development,” waterdrop said
Financial difficulties may be an important reason for waterdrop to break the 0 service fee standard that has been adhered to for five years since its launch. In 2021, shuidi company was listed on the US stock market. The financial report shows that from 2018 to 2021, the company’s net loss increased step by step, which were 209 million yuan, 322 million yuan, 664 million yuan and 1.574 billion yuan respectively. As of April 22, 2022, the company’s share price has fallen by nearly 90% compared with the issue price.
It is worth mentioning that behind the continuous loss is the fact that shuidi company spent a lot of money on marketing after the decline of its reputation. This project originally set up with charity as its original intention has suffered huge losses under the chain reaction caused by a series of negative events.
While waterdrop raised the service fee, many netizens complained on platforms such as black cat complaint [complaint portal], saying that easy raise collected “support fee” from donors, donated 10 yuan and paid 13 yuan. In this regard, the staff of easy financing explained that the “support fee” is the operating cost of the platform, and the donor has the right to choose, not a mandatory behavior. If you go back, the platform will return it after application.
Some analysts believe that the public welfare images such as waterdrop financing are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. After charging, it may reduce the social evaluation, affect the enthusiasm of public participation, and then drag down the insurance business. However, if users can accept it smoothly, these platforms will operate more healthily in the future. Therefore, public acceptance is crucial to the development of waterdrop chips.
From 0 to 3%, water drops have been used for 5 years
Radar financial combed and found that waterdrop financing had been able to stand out from a number of Internet serious illness fund-raising platforms, and its main concept of zero service fee played a key role.
In 2016, the product “waterdrop mutual aid”, whose original intention was to help members obtain mutual aid funds for disease treatment, ushered in an outbreak after its launch, and the number of members exceeded one million 100 days later. But at the same time of barbaric growth, the online mutual aid platform led by waterdrop mutual aid has also attracted the attention of the CBRC.
Since most of the online mutual aid platforms do not have insurance business qualifications, the principals of online mutual aid platforms such as waterdrop mutual aid were interviewed. Waterdrop’s round a financing is also blocked.
However, it was during the rectification of waterdrop mutual aid in accordance with the policy that the company’s founder Shen pengmeng came up with the idea of making waterdrop financing.
It is reported that at that time, a customer called shuidi and said that he had invested in shuidi mutual aid, but he had not passed the observation period. Now he was seriously ill and asked if shuidi mutual aid could help him make a page fundraising. Waterdrop wanted to focus on mutual aid business and push the fund-raising needs to other platforms, but other platforms regard waterdrop as a competitor. Finally, waterdrop can only do it by itself.
At the same time, Shen Peng found that the peak of word-of-mouth customers was when serious illness compensation cases occurred, and the incremental users on the same day and the next day could reach five times the usual. While raising money for seriously ill patients, shuidiqian can also undertake the function of diversion.
In this context, Shen Pengli held a public debate and launched the water drop financing project.
As the No. 10 employee of meituan, Shen Peng knows how to win the “thousand regiments war” of takeout. It not only recruited many employees of meituan and perfectly reproduced the previous scene of “pushing the Iron Army”, but also adopted a sinking strategy similar to meituan and went deep into the third, fourth and fifth tier cities for promotion.
However, what is more critical is the understanding of waterdrop financing on subsidies. At that time, platforms including easy financing will charge about 2% of the handling fee, while waterdrop financing first promoted the concept of “0 service fee”, which not only helped it quickly win a large number of users and reputation, but also forced other platforms to follow up, making “0 service fee” an industry practice.
“Users may still lack medical treatment money if they have water drop mutual assistance or insurance.” Shen Peng said, “many public welfare foundations in China are themed with rare diseases and children’s diseases, but they pay very little attention to serious diseases. Other platforms for raising funds for serious diseases also charge relatively high service fees. Many users who are poor due to illness really need us, and we have found a lot of sense of achievement because of this business.”.
At first, the “0 service fee” raised by waterdrop was very pure. Even the 0.6% channel handling fee deducted by the third-party payment platform was advanced by the company itself. However, after January 2020, this part of the cost has been borne by the fundraiser.
In 2021, when there was a rumor that waterdrop chip “charged 18% commission”, the company also refuted the rumor and stressed that “waterdrop chip does not contribute any revenue”.
By 2022, the “myth” of “0 service fee” will not continue. Since January this year, waterdrop financing has begun to pilot the charging of service fees in individual cities. The fundraisers of a single fund-raising project actually mentioned that at present, in addition to paying the 0.6% handling fee deducted by the third-party payment platform, they also have to pay a 3% service fee, capped at 5000 yuan.
Based on this calculation, a user who raised 100000 yuan needed to pay 3600 yuan to the platform, and actually got 96400 yuan. Fundraisers with a final fund-raising amount of more than 166700 yuan need to pay a service fee of 5000 yuan plus a 0.6% payment handling fee.
Two months after the pilot, relevant people of waterdrop financing said in an interview that there is no comprehensive implementation schedule at present. However, on April 7, the pilot policy has spread to the whole platform.
According to the announcement on trial operation of water drop service fee issued by water drop company, by the end of 2021, the company had helped nearly 2.4 million seriously ill patients raise medical funds, and continued to subsidize the operating cost of the platform for seriously ill patients for more than five years, so the platform was under great operating pressure. In order to maintain the stable operation of the platform, waterdrop will start the trial operation from April 7 and charge the platform service fee to the fundraiser.
Waterdrop chip also said in the column of answering users’ frequently asked questions on the official website: “the service fee charged by the platform is not for profit, but only to ensure the sustainability of the platform