Nextdoor — a new private social network for neighborhoods — is far from an original concept. There are a number of sites that have tried a version of this in the past. For example, Fatdoor (which became Center’d and The Dealmap) was one that had the same idea and couldn’t gain traction. WhitePages Neighbors is another example, which launched recently. There are others.
The concept is obviously sound: recommendations from trusted members of the community. Beyond the fact that you don’t always share your neighbors’ tastes and values, Nextdoor faces several major challenges. The two obvious ones are consumer adoption/usage and revenue. The second will come if the first can be achieved.
I’ve spoken several times recently about the local “chicken and egg problem.” Nextdoor has been in private beta and has reportedly amassed several thousand users to date. While college identity (combined with voyeurism and dating) made early adoption relatively easy for Facebook — the inspiration behind Nextdoor — the motivations to use Nextdoor are “thinner.”
It’s essentially pitching a more trusted IYP and discussion group. But the kind of interactions that it envisions (neighbors asking questions and providing recommendations) already happen in email groups and online communities to varying degrees. And lots of sites provide the kinds of content that Nextdoor would offer.
I won’t dismiss the site at launch. But it’s not clear to me yet that Nextdoor offers a strong enough proposition to users to get them off of their existing habits. Here’s my advice to Nextdoor: go after school-related parent groups as a better alternative to email and Yahoo Groups.
October 26th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Great observation on your advice – Our family sees 2 active bigtent parent groups (that moved from Yahoo long ago), as well well as at least 4+ shutterfly kid-related groups (each kid’s class and current soccer team) that are active right now, and each is a silo.
October 26th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
This is a path toward adoption for them. Otherwise, I think it’s much much more challenging.
October 26th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
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October 27th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
As one of the original cofounders of the similarly-named SaveNextDoor website, I know the chicken-or-the-egg problem all too well. I wish NextDoor luck, but I would still bet against them.
October 27th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Like the idea but as you state its a challenge. I think the larger issue is that the concept of ‘neighborhood’ is small by default and as a result, there never seems to be enough content to make these types of sites current / interesting / relevant.
I would like to see a modern (meaning feature rich) version of craigslist try to solve the same problem because I think you need to have enough content to make it relevant and fresh.
October 27th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I think that if this becomes a communication tool among local parents’ groups it has a shot, otherwise probably not.
November 3rd, 2011 at 7:05 pm
[...] initially posted about Nextdoor, the new social platform for neighbors, and expressed skepticism around the site’s “chicken and egg problem”: It’s essentially pitching a more [...]