RedBalloon is an

experiential gifts Experiential gifts, also known as gift experiences, are gifts of experiences instead of material possessions. Experiences include adventures, dining, travel and music. Experiential gifts have become a rapidly growing segment within the annual gif ...

company.

History

RedBalloon was founded in 2001 by

Naomi Simson Naomi Simson (born 22 February 1964) is an Australian businessperson, entrepreneur, podcaster and blogger. After launching the Australian online success story RedBalloon in 2001, Naomi went on to co-found Big Red Group with partner David Ande ...

. Simson began the company out of her house with a $25,000 personal investment, after copying the idea from the UK business Red Letter Days She grew the company to forty six employees by 2011. The business concept was to sell experiences and memories rather than gifts. Simson launched the company from her home in

Balmain, New South Wales Balmain is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Inner West Council. It is locate ...

. It was at the end of the

dot-com era The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

and she had a difficult time signing up businesses to list with the company. It was a total of two months and four days before the company sold its first experience gift, which resulted in a profit of $9 for commission on the sale. RedBalloon Offices

The company began to grow six months after pop when it was contacted by

Fuji Xerox Fujifilm Business Innovation Corporation (), formerly known as Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., is a Japanese company specializing in the development, production, and sale of Xerography, xerographic and document-related products and services across the A ...

about using the experiences available on the website as an incentive for its sales force. Companies such as Telstra, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, and Qantas signed up shortly thereafter. The success of using the experiences for incentives led the company to create RedBalloon Corporate in 2004. From 2001 through 2012, it was reported that the company sold more than 1.7 million gift experiences. The company also reported a 40% growth in their 2012 financial year for overall transaction values. The company also sells experience gift cards in offline retailers such as

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Big W Big W (stylised as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of the Woolworths Group and as of 2024 operated 179 stores, with around 18,000 emp ...

, and

Myer Myer (stylised MYER) is an Australian mid-range to upscale department store. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of products across women's, men's, and child ...

. The company migrated its online infrastructure to cloud-based

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in 2013. The move was to manage peak traffic load which included $1Million in sales on Christmas Eve 2012. Prior to that time, the company used caching and had extra servers on standby to deal with peak loads of traffic to the site. The company also made its first external board appointments in 2013 when it appointed Richard England as chairman of the board and

Scott Farquhar Scott Farquhar (born December 1979) is an Australian businessman who is the co-founder and the former co-chief executive officer of software company Atlassian. Farquhar often carries the epithet of ''accidental billionaire'' after he and his bu ...

as a non-executive director. Naomi Simson was CEO of the company until 2011 when she took a step back from the operational side of the business. In October 2013 RedBalloon delivered its two millionth experience. In 2015, Nick Baker was hired as CEO of the company and Ken Boundy became chairman of the board. RedBalloon went through a re-branding in late 2015, updating the company logo and website. David Anderson took over as CEO in 2017 after becoming the CEO of the newly formed Big Red Group, a holding company that became the parent of RedBalloon. Anderson purchased 50% of Redballoon in 2017. RedBalloon was fined $43,000 in 2017 by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission after an investigation found they charged four consumers excessive payment surcharges.

Awards and recognition

RedBalloon's awards and recognition include being named one of ''The Great Places to Work'' by

Business Review Weekly ''BRW'' (formerly ''Business Review Weekly'') was an Australian business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. The magazine was headquartered in Melbourne. It regularly compiled lists which rank corporations and individuals according t ...

from 2009 to 2013 and receiving recognition on the ''BRW Fast 100'' list from 2004 to 2009. The company has also been a regular on the

Deloitte Fast 50 The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Awards are organized and overseen by the global professional services firm Deloitte, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. These awards recognize the 500 technology companies with the highest growth rates across vari ...

for Australia, beginning in 2006. In 2015 it became the first Australian company to be named on the WorldBlu list of Most Freedom-Centered Workplaces.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

RedBalloon Official Website
Retail companies established in 2001 Companies based in Sydney Online retailers of Australia Giving

History

Awards and recognition

See also

References

External links