Mobile future for NZ business

Facebook's chief creative officer, New Zealander Mark D'Arcy, says businesses here should be mobile-first. Photo / Nick Reed

Facebook's chief creative officer thinks New Zealand should lead the world in making a mobile-first business environment.

Kiwi-born Mark D'Arcy told an audience at Ad:Tech in Auckland this morning that the personalised feeds created for each Facebook user, based on complex algorithms, made it an even playing field for every company.

"There is no Facebook, there are many Facebooks," he said. "We see the things that matter to us."

Every Facebook feed is made up of what each user wants. Of the 2.1 million New Zealanders who use Facebook daily, 1.8 million access it on their mobiles.

"This idea that each of you is the single most important thing in the world to you. Your complexity, your loves, your desires, you interests, passions and people. All of those things are incredibly important to you, and so they should be," D'Arcy said.

D'Arcy, who grew up in West Auckland, said the common phrase used among New Zealand business is "the tyranny of geography", and the shift to mobile should be harnessed by local businesses.

"I really think the mobile shift is in some ways a bigger thing than the internet itself.

"The big issue when you run a business out of New Zealand, particularly if you're an export business, is the disconnection you have between a lot of things that are going on in the rest of the world."

Harnessing a global audience is possible on mobile platforms, D'Arcy said.

"I really think being mobile first as a national goal around business is really something you could align with.

"This isn't about starting a mobile app company, what I'm talking about is the idea of thinking about mobile, really learning about it, building on it, branding on it and exporting."

D'Arcy said he works with big agencies around the world, as well as small companies from developing markets.

"Some of the greatest innovations are small businesses using these platforms to build extraordinary businesses that you'd never imagine, it's super inspiring."

Ad:tech is a one day event for marketers and innovators in business held at AUT.