In 2006, China's insurance industry stood at the dawn of a golden era of extensive growth. That same year witnessed the birth of the nation's first electronic insurance policy. At the time, internet insurance was merely a novel concept discussed by a few, and no one could imagine a day when the entire insurance sales process would be completed entirely online. It was from this starting point, defined by a "human wave" sales strategy, that Huize Holding Ltd (HUIZ.US) was quietly established in Shenzhen. Guided by the initial mission of "making insurance simple," it became one of the earliest pioneers exploring the integration of insurance and the internet in China.

Starting as an information aggregator, this company has, over the subsequent two decades, completed three major leaps: from an information platform to an online insurance marketplace, and finally to an AI-driven digital insurance service platform. This journey has charted an "evolutionary path" distinct from traditional industry routes.

Adapting to Market Demand, Reaping Rewards in Scale and Profit

Two decades have passed in a flash, and China's insurance sector has entered a new phase of development. Against the backdrop of the comprehensive implementation of "rate filing and channel management unification" and an accelerating industry reshuffle, the sector is navigating a deep-water period of business model transition and channel transformation.

The once-dominant army of agents, which supported the industry's rapid growth, has shrunk significantly from its peak of over 9 million in 2019. The growth momentum of traditional offline channels continues to wane, prompting the entire industry to explore new pathways for breakthrough.

In contrast, consumer demand for online, transparent, and convenient insurance services continues to rise. Consequently, Huize Holding Ltd (HUIZ.US), with its early strategic positioning, has managed to stand out from the crowd. In recent years, its gross written premiums have seen continuous growth, surpassing the 3 billion and 5 billion yuan marks in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and exceeding 6 billion yuan in 2024.

In 2025, the company facilitated total gross written premiums of 7.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%, setting another historical record. This growth rate far outpaced the life insurance industry's average of 9.05%. First-year premiums reached 4.63 billion yuan, surging 35% year-on-year, indicating robust momentum in new business growth. Total operating revenue was 1.58 billion yuan, up 26.7% year-on-year. During the same period, the company achieved an adjusted net profit of 22.624 million yuan, with an adjusted net profit margin of 1.43%, an improvement of 0.4 percentage points from 2024, marking the third consecutive year of profitability.

Behind these impressive figures lies the continuous release of the structural advantages driven by Huize's dual engines: a long-term insurance strategy and digital transformation. More notably, this high growth is firmly rooted in a foundation of long-term insurance, endowing it with strong sustainability and a compounding effect.

Long-term insurance is precisely the core differentiator that sets Huize apart from many short-term insurance platforms. In the insurance industry, the policy renewal rate serves as a touchstone for business health, directly determining the quality of a platform's growth. In 2025, the 13-month and 25-month cumulative renewal rates for its long-term insurance policies both exceeded 95%. This is the most direct quantitative expression of Huize's customer moat and signifies that the company can reliably harvest substantial renewal premiums each year without additional customer acquisition costs.

Like a "snowball," as long as the slope is sufficiently long and the snow wet enough, the existing portfolio of policies will contribute revenue year after year, forming a compounding effect that grows larger and larger—this is the most solid underlying logic of Huize's business model.

Differentiated capabilities on the product side serve as another "ballast stone" for performance growth. Huize does not engage in simple "insurance price comparison"; instead, it follows a "platform + customization" route: deeply co-creating products with leading insurance companies, designing them based on user needs. In 2025, the company's new single-premium savings insurance grew by 48% year-on-year, while new single-premium health insurance soared by 52.3%. Its flagship "Darwin" critical illness insurance series has undergone continuous iteration and upgrades, consistently remaining at the forefront of internet-based critical illness insurance products.

This deep customization capability allows Huize to avoid the price war quagmire of pure traffic platforms, retaining customers with differentiated solutions and protecting its profit margins.

Beyond products, Huize has spent twenty years proving that a digital platform can also build deep customer trust. By the end of 2025, its cumulative number of insured clients had surpassed 12 million, with 1.67 million new insured clients added during the year, indicating continuous user base expansion.

Behind the over 8.5 million policies are years of ongoing renewal services, policy management, claims assistance, and customer care, representing a deep transformation from one-time transactions to long-term service relationships.

Examining the customer structure reveals that Huize has precisely targeted the most valuable incremental market for insurance consumption. The urban core group around 35 years old possesses rigid insurance needs, strong payment capabilities, and high acceptance of digital services, making them a premium customer segment fiercely contested by insurers and intermediaries alike. Huize's ability to continuously attract and retain this demographic indicates that its product strategy, service experience, and brand positioning have achieved a high degree of alignment with its target customers.

It is evident that a customer base in the tens of millions and millions of policies constitute Huize's "compounding engine." This vast customer foundation continuously dilutes marginal customer acquisition and operational costs. The platform effect strengthens with scale, creating a virtuous cycle where "larger scale leads to higher efficiency, which in turn leads to a better customer experience."

Reconstructing the Insurance Value Chain with AI Technology

If long-term insurance and its customer base form Huize's solid foundation, then AI technology is the core engine driving its rapid growth. In 2025, Huize's AI deployment officially transitioned from an "investment phase" to a "production phase": the self-service application rate for new customers increased by 50% year-on-year, with AI now capable of independently completing the entire insurance service process and directly generating premiums.

This signifies that AI is no longer merely a backend support tool but has truly stepped onto the front lines of business, becoming a "digital productive force" that directly creates value.

In fact, Huize has never been hesitant to invest in technology. In 2025, it invested approximately 58.688 million yuan in research and development, and the company plans to further increase investments in technology and professional talent in the future.

The efficiency gains are already tangibly reflected in the financial statements. In 2025, the company's total expense ratio decreased by 5.9 percentage points year-on-year—a very impressive improvement in the insurance intermediary industry, where labor costs are high. Intelligent underwriting, automated customer service, precise demand recommendation... AI technology permeates every aspect of the business, significantly reducing the frequency of manual intervention. This not only compresses costs but also enhances service response speed, elevating the user experience to a new level.

Claims settlement is the "last mile" of insurance service and the core touchpoint most keenly felt by users. In January 2026, Huize's AI claims agent was fully integrated with its core claims system. The first claim case automatically reviewed by AI was settled in just 23 minutes, setting an industry precedent. From past review cycles that could take days to today's minute-level rapid payouts, Huize has fundamentally rewritten the timeliness standards for insurance claims using AI.

Throughout 2025, the company assisted 172,800 clients with claims, helping them secure a total payout of 739 million yuan. For users, claims speed often influences word-of-mouth more than premium price. For Huize, technological leadership in the claims process is gradually accumulating into irreplaceable customer trust.

In June of this year, Huize officially launched the COMT (Comprehensive Family Lifecycle Risk Insurance Planning Professional Standard) system. This is the industry's first family protection service framework that integrates AI-powered risk identification, comprehensive coverage, full lifecycle management, and customized planning. It generates personalized family insurance plans based on user profiles, accurately matching the needs of the platform's core customer base. This initiative pushes Huize's transformation towards a "family risk management advisor" through a standardized service framework, further deepening single-customer value and solidifying customer loyalty.

Sailing Overseas, Unlocking a Second Growth Curve

While domestic insurance intermediaries are still locked in fierce competition within a saturated market, Huize has taken the lead in looking overseas, taking steps in its global layout, thereby opening a new ceiling for long-term growth.

The company made a forward-looking move into the Hong Kong market as early as 2010. Its overseas strategy entered an acceleration phase in 2024: in June, it established the overseas brand Poni Insurtech's headquarters in Singapore as a regional hub for Southeast Asia; in September, it completed the acquisition of Global Care, a leading digital insurance technology platform in Vietnam.

After several years of operation, the overseas sub-brand Global Care has performed exceptionally well in the Vietnamese market: in 2025, its total gross written premium grew by 106% year-on-year, nearly doubling. This achievement strongly demonstrates that the digital insurance business model proven successful in China is highly replicable in emerging markets.

Southeast Asia, with its low insurance penetration and rapidly growing internet penetration, is at a development stage highly similar to China a decade ago. This blue ocean market provides ample space for Huize's online, platform-based model to flourish.

Furthermore, the Singapore subsidiary obtained a Financial Adviser and Exempt Insurance Broker license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which is also viewed by the market as a crucial step in its overseas expansion strategy. As a financial and wealth management hub in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore itself is a high-value insurance market and a strategic nexus for reaching the Southeast Asian market and even the global Chinese diaspora market. This international license signifies that Huize's compliance capabilities, professional standards, and operational systems have passed the scrutiny of top-tier international regulators, laying a solid compliance foundation for global expansion.

It is foreseeable that Huize's "going global" strategy is backed by its mature domestic base of tens of millions of customers and millions of policies, exporting the entire "AI + product + operations" methodology that has been validated in the market. In 2026, the company continues to accelerate the pace and depth of its overseas layout.

The journey from a "Chinese insurance technology company" to a "global insurance service platform" has begun. The doubling growth in the Vietnamese market is just a starting point. As more Southeast Asian markets are explored, overseas operations are expected to become one of the company's core growth drivers within the next three to five years.

In Conclusion

The twenty-year journey of Huize Holding Ltd (HUIZ.US) mirrors the complete evolution of China's internet insurance: from offline to online, from manual to intelligent, and from channel to platform. Having honed its skills over two decades, Huize has distilled a mature business model: AI technology reconstructs the efficiency and experience of insurance services; long-termist customer operations establish a high-barrier compounding model; and the overseas strategy opens the ceiling of the incremental market, signaling the globalization of China's digital insurance model.

For investors, the core value of Huize lies in this: as a digital insurance service platform driven by AI, protected by a moat of customer assets, and with globalization as its growth space, it seeks to leverage a lighter model and broader connections to unlock significant development potential. In the wave of digital transformation sweeping the insurance industry, this three-dimensional competitiveness encompassing technology, customers, and globalization possesses a certain scarcity. This is precisely the long-term value of Huize most worthy of attention in the capital markets.