From last week, Walla Team has been conducting investor relations (IR) activities to secure its second round of investment. In this article, we aim to transparently share what Walla Team is currently thinking, what they are working on, and the insights they have gained.

The Link Between Users and Developers, the Research Team

We often hear that data is crucial. Many companies have realized the importance of customer data and have established teams like "CX Teams" and "Research Teams" to collect and analyze customer data, achieving a conversion rate of up to 70% from outbound research. The link between users and developers, the Research Team, comprises more than three members on average for each company with over 100 employees, and they spend an average of over 5 hours a day on data analysis. They analyze at least 10,000 pieces of data on average each month. Here's a summary of the daily tasks of ten researchers we interviewed:

Fragmented Customer Data Collection and Work Environment

In the tasks of the researchers mentioned earlier, the term "form" in "form composition and creation" referred to Google Forms in over 90% of cases. Google Forms is widely used because it offers only a small fraction of the features that task managers desire, so they need to spend a lot of time and effort using multiple services.

Two Major Time-Consuming Areas

Researchers spend the most time on "respondent discovery/interview" and "response analysis." In the case of respondent discovery/interview, the most significant challenge arises when dealing with external individuals who do not use the company's services.

Additionally, response analysis varies slightly depending on the purpose of the form. Monthly summary/classification of subjective response data usually involves analyzing over 100,000 pieces of data, making it nearly impossible for the research team to analyze all subjective response data each month. Form events, on the other hand, can generate 200,000 to 500,000 data entries when operated once, making it challenging to analyze the data in spreadsheets.

When you look at this market horizontally, you'll notice a trend of increasing polarization in the customer data collected. The "lightest" customer data is typically rating data like star ratings, while the "heaviest" customer data includes subjective responses and interviews. Existing forms like Google Forms are suitable for handling intermediate-level data. Walla aims to handle the "heavier" customer data beyond this midpoint and believes it can handle most of the data in this market.

Walla's Specialized Data Automated Analysis in Clustering & Classification

Properly analyzing this "heavier" data is essential. Walla provides not only metrics like views and churn rates but also automatically summarizes data in a single sentence without the need for complete analysis.

Moreover, Walla offers automatic analysis of subjective response data. For example, if you instruct, "Read all responses and categorize them into five categories," or "Analyze the emotions in the text and categorize them as positive/negative/neutral," Walla will perform these tasks on your behalf.

Companies currently using this feature analyze trends effortlessly in over 100,000 customer response data each month, segmented by month and campaign. If you want to learn more about this feature, please contact cs@walla.my!

Enterprise SaaS for Customer Data Collection & Analysis

Walla solves fragmented tasks by offering various features such as form creation, collaboration/alerts, distribution, analysis, and rewards. Walla has gained a unique competitive advantage with features like automatic analysis of subjective response data.

Thanks to Walla, researchers have significantly reduced the time required to complete a single project. When calculated for each company, this amounts to an average annual saving of 1,260 hours and KRW 28.9 million.

Beta Launch for 6 Months and Official Launch for 2 Months – Performance Metrics

Walla has been officially launched for only about two months, with an explosive growth rate, boasting 7,600 users and 2,400 MAU (Monthly Active Users) currently. Walla has conducted over 2,800 surveys, and the number of respondents has reached 310,000.

Even as we summarize this information, the number of customers continues to grow at a rate that is changing the first digit. Although the majority of customers are currently domestic, Walla has received responses from a much wider range of countries. We look forward to the new worlds and situations that Walla will continue to discover.

Now, let's discuss revenue. In October of last year, during the beta launch, Walla earned only KRW 30,000. Six months later, Walla achieved an MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) of KRW 5.78 million and revenue of over KRW 6.8 million this month. Our goal is to achieve break-even point (BEP) within this year. All of these achievements have occurred in just six short months.

Direction for Walla's Future Growth

Before Walla, our team operated a survey panel app service for three years. During this time, we encountered the limitations of panel apps. The very reason panels exist is to gather people with diverse demographic characteristics who are willing to respond. However, maintaining these diverse demographics within an app-based ecosystem, or "app tech," proved challenging. In simpler terms, we found that the younger generation, particularly those in their twenties, were not as enthusiastic about app tech.

To address this challenge, we believed that we needed to gather panels in a more flexible, "loose" manner. Walla integrated this idea with rewards. Participants could receive rewards via a link, without the need for phone numbers, and those who possessed the link could be asked follow-up questions, creating a more extensive panel. From the respondent's perspective, this meant more rewards for fewer responses (since responses accumulate, one-time responses suffice), making it more appealing.

When we initially developed SaaS, our goal was to make it easier for more companies to create forms. With more forms in circulation, more rewards would be at stake, reaching a broader audience. Starting with SaaS, our ultimate goal is to turn everyone in the world into a part of our panel network.

A Brief Reflection on Successful Startups

Of course, our revenue growth, while significant, is not astronomical. We still have a long way to go. Nevertheless, we believe that the primary reason for our rapid growth in a short period is our perspective on how Walla views the market. Recently, an investor told us that a "good startup team is not necessarily one from a prestigious university or a famous previous job but rather a team with good ideas about how to view the market." This comment resonated with us deeply.

Over the past five years in the data market, we've rolled up our sleeves, rolled with the punches, and thought extensively about the attitude we should adopt in this market. Even before we had these metrics, we worked diligently. However, we have gradually adjusted our direction. Now, we are finally finding the direction to take a breath and move forward. We continuously seek clues on how companies can willingly spend their money, what products they use, and why they choose us. This is why we believe that the ability to view the market in a positive light is the most significant reason our revenue today differs from that six months ago.

In conclusion, recognizing market challenges and understanding customer needs clearly is where a good perspective on the market begins. Through several pivots, we've learned that every market and service comes with its challenges and conditions. The best market and service can only emerge when we delve deep, like digging a well, to find that one clear point. We applaud all the startup teams tirelessly working to find their wells in their respective markets.