A strong need for digital revolution, says True Balance founder

Cheolwon Charlie Lee — founder and CEO, True Balance — began his Indian journey with Hello Tunes, the popular value-added service for telecom service providers. “For me, India is a second home — sometimes I joke with my Indian friends, ‘I’m more Indian than you!’” A big fan of Clayton M Christensen (he of disruptive innovation), the affable Korean sees great promise in the rural Indian market, and True Balance, a mobile app, is busy reaching out to this very segment. Founded in 2016, Lee’s startup was in the right place, at the right time. “It was good timing!”
Untapped billions

Up to now, the billion users we have provided services for are rich people. But this market is already saturated, so the next billion users will have to come from rural India. More than 70% of our users are from rural areas. They’re not that rich, and most don’t have access to online payments. They have a stronger need for finance but they cannot access and enjoy the service. So, from day one, we are focused on them. Our categorisation is not just geographical, or based on income levels — it’s smartphone users who can’t pay online.

The smartphone

The answer is not to slow down but to come up with new ideas and protocols. All the change we are experiencing is thanks to the smartphone — smartphone is not just mobile internet, it’s creating a new economy. That’s where we’re coming from — disruptive innovation is the base of our service. There have been more billionaires in the last 10 years than in the last 200. We’re living in lucky times, because there are a lot of business opportunities.

Digital Asia rising

Growth and development is no longer coming from the West, but is being initiated by Asian countries. The need for digital revolution is stronger in Asia, so it’s natural to develop fast here. The benefit customers in the US and Europe are getting from using mobile payment, or mobile financial services, is very marginal, because they’re already using credit cards, internet banking, etc. In Asian countries, so many people use cash. For them, mobile payments or loans are of huge benefit.

Continental journeys

When my Chinese friends come to Korea, they complain, “In China, I can use Alipay to pay everywhere, but in Korea it’s very hard to use it!” In Korea everybody uses credit cards — we have 50 million people, and 60 million credit cards. But it’s different in China — everybody uses Alipay because they never used credit cards before. And the same applies to India.