As social media platforms evolve into specific niches, the Nextdoor platform is quickly expanding its online version of neighborhood-level interaction.
Mike Isaac reports on the expanding reach of Nextdoor—a San Francisco-based social networking start-up aimed at building community.
According to Isaac, "[investors] think Nextdoor is on to something. The company will announce on Wednesday that it has raised $110 million in venture capital from investors like Redpoint Ventures and Insight Venture Partners. The new investment values the three-and-a-half-year-old start-up at about $1.1 billion, putting the company among the sharply rising number of tech start-ups with 10-figure valuations."
Isaac adds that the investments indicate an interest in small (i.e., neighborhood-sized) communities. And neighborhoods are Nextdoor's niche. "Nextdoor has slowly built a network of more than 53,000 microcommunities across the United States, all based on local neighborhood boundaries. Nextdoor restricts communication to only those people who live close to one another; users are required to verify their identity and home address upon signing up," writes Isaac. Planetizen described Nextdoor as the "Facebook for neighborhoods" in April of 2014.
A day after Isaac's article was published, Oklahoma City announced that it had adopted a municipal profile on Nextdoor, to join the 200-plus neighborhoods in the city already using the social media platform. The city intends to use Nextdoor as a community engagement tool for the sharing of information in both directions.
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