Donations of 1 yuan were deducted by 3 yuan, and many Internet platforms began to charge "support fees"
Big illness fundraising bid farewell to the free era?
Our reporter Pan Fuda
Recently, many netizens have reported that many Internet fundraising platforms for serious illnesses charge donors "support fees", and even 1 yuan for donations is charged 3 yuan; fee.
Why do various fundraising platforms for serious illnesses with a public welfare color have launched commercial charging measures one after another?
Why did Waterdrop Company break the long-standing "0 service fee for serious illness fundraising" model since its launch?
What impact will this have on the Internet personal critical illness help industry?
This reporter investigated.
Test the water and water drop chips and charge a 3% service fee
"I was deducted 3 yuan for no reason, it's very unhappy!" Recently, many netizens broke the news on the complaint platform that when they donated money on the Internet serious illness fundraising platform, they accidentally paid 3 yuan more fees, and even donated 1 yuan. Charge 3 yuan.
Several netizens complained: "I just want to donate some money, who still has time to study the rules of the platform?"
The reporter found in a number of serious illness fundraising platforms that charging "support fees" has gradually become an industry practice. Users can avoid deductions without checking the relevant options, and the fees can be refunded.
However, some platforms charge this fee by default, and users will be charged more if they do not read the rules carefully.
In addition to collecting "support fees" from donors, there are also platforms that draw a fee from the money raised by fundraisers.
From January 17 this year, Shuidichou began to collect service fees in more than ten cities across the country, including Baise in Guangxi, Xuzhou in Jiangsu, and Linyi in Shandong.
In addition to the 0.6% payment channel fee previously charged by third parties, Shuidipui charges a 3% platform service fee for each fundraising in pilot cities, and the service fee for a single project is capped at 5,000 yuan.
Prior to this, the financial report of Waterdrop showed that Waterdrop did not contribute any revenue.
In fact, the 0.6% channel fee deducted by the third-party payment platform has existed since the launch of Shuidichou. Before January 2020, this fee has been borne by Shuidi.
It is understood that the water drop chip has not yet considered a large-scale rollout, but it is still for the purpose of obtaining more suggestions.
The reporter consulted the relevant person in charge of Easy Funding and learned that the Easy Funding platform currently does not charge any fees for serious illness fundraising business; Anxincho customer service staff introduced that when the fundraising cash is withdrawn, the platform deducts 2% of the handling fee, and the third-party payment platform deducts 0.6% of the fee .
Exploring the Difficulty of "Diversion and Realization" Business
"We do not hope to achieve profitability by charging service fees, but hope to maintain a reasonable operating cost to ensure the normal operation of the platform." Guo Nanyang, head of Shuidichou's business, said that Shuidichou is often regarded as a public welfare organization. The platform itself is a commercial company.
In the early stage of the development of Waterdrop, zero service fees and a team of fundraising consultants were the "sharp weapons" for Waterdrop to rapidly expand its scale and catch up with its peers.
When Waterdrop was launched, it announced that it would not charge service fees, which won a large number of users for the platform. Other fundraising platforms followed suit, and it became an industry practice to not charge service fees.
Waterdrop Company has brought the business model of "fundraising + mutual aid + insurance" to the extreme. With the closure of Waterdrop Mutual Aid last year, fundraising has become the main traffic entry for the insurance business.
"Critical illness fundraising scenarios can stimulate users' willingness to purchase insurance. Users often receive insurance product recommendations after making donations. Insurance business relies on the traffic brought by fundraising." A practitioner and reporter of a serious illness fundraising platform revealed.
In order to obtain traffic quickly and on a large scale, it is necessary to "burn money". The industry usually uses the income from selling insurance to support the operating costs of the fundraising team.
The practitioner said that in August last year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Carrying out Special Rectification Work for Internet Insurance Chaos", and the business of "directing and realizing" is difficult to do, and the fundraising business must consider "hematopoietic" subsidy operations. Cost, many platforms open the charging model.
Viewpoint platform should set service fee standard
The Internet critical illness fundraising platform is one of the important components of my country's critical illness relief social forces in recent years. It has formed an effective supplementary channel for the supply of medical funds in addition to medical insurance and commercial insurance.
From the very beginning, it has the halo of "charity for public welfare", but it is actually a kind of commercial service. Between the boundaries of public welfare and business, as a new thing, the Internet serious disease fundraising platform urgently needs to explore its own development path.
Song Zhanjun, deputy secretary-general of the Insurance Research Center of Beijing Technology and Business University, said that neither the Charity Law nor relevant regulatory documents currently prohibits the mode of personal help for serious illness on the Internet, and both the civil affairs department and the medical insurance department at the national level are paying close attention to online serious illness fundraising. The normative development of the platform.
This type of platform is related to the rescue of millions of vulnerable groups, and it still mainly relies on the company's self-discipline.
He suggested that in the next step, on the basis of further expanding the quality of company information disclosure by various platforms, the Internet serious illness fundraising platform should be included in the supervision scope by amending the "Charity Law" and other laws and regulations.
"The free service method is not enough to support the sustainable development of the business, and it will hinder the platform's further role in social assistance." Zhao Wanping, deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of the Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that as an Internet platform with efficiency advantages, it can With reference to the current foundation management fee standards, a reasonable industry service fee standard will be established, thereby promoting the healthy and lasting development of the industry.
Xie Qiong, director and professor of the People's Livelihood Security Research Center of Beijing Normal University, also believes that charging service fees to a certain extent is more beneficial than the "commercial feedback" model, but it is necessary to set the charging rate carefully to ensure sustainable development.