After eight years, Wellington mobile phone technology company Run The Red is still growing by 500 per cent a year.
Its text-savvy fingers are already in many pies, and the potential of one of its innovations is yet to be realised in full.
Using a mobile phone as a wallet is not a new concept, with some standardised payments and parking meters currently mobile-friendly, but try buying a beer with your phone and you'll not get far.
Run The Red marketing director Ben Northrop said the potential for that was not rocket science and was something that "should have been done ages ago".
Managing director Deborah Crowe said existing mobile payment technology worked like internet banking and pre-established accounts and limited options for consumers.
"We don't want to play in that world. The future is with what the consumer wants to do," she said. Run The Red focus is on establishing a system through which people can authorise a direct payment from their normal bank account into a vendor's account via a text message.
Facilitating the largest number of text messages in New Zealand outside of Telecom and Vodafone, Run The Red has been listed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index for the past two years and has quadrupled its staff since its inception.
The company is looking to Brazil and the United States to expand its business and has spent the past 10 months and $500,000 on the technology.
Mr Northrop compares text-pay technology to eftpos, saying the potential to revolutionise the way consumers buy products hinges on making it easy to use. "It has to be as easy as sending a text", he said.
Ordering a delivery of wine by text messages, or enabling immigrants to send money to families overseas are two examples touted as easy fixes for the new technology.
Ms Crowe said retail shopping via a mobile was only about 18 months away.
But the key, and Run The Red's advantage over existing pay-by-phone systems, is empowering the consumer. No fuss, no accounts, no hassle.
"People just want to be able to get stuff when they want it," she said.
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