During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing requirements can make neighbors feel distant despite their living nearby.
He talks about the damaging decline of "social capital" — deeply rooted civic relationships, rather than pages full of so-called friends we only interact with online — in modern American life. The network is a place for neighbors to ask each other for advice for help.is the world's largest private network for neighbors, currently in 11 countries and 260,000 neighborhoods and with plans to expand globally.
Nextdoor is "founded on trust and utility. We have a friction-full verification process, so we are sure every resident is who they say they are and lives at the address given," said Prakash. "This makes it a safe environment for people to reach out for and offer help." Prakash is proud that local government, police, and fire departments trust the platform as a space to get information out to residents.
While being neighborly might be at the center of Nextdoor's mission, as its user base grows, there's opportunity to strengthen its relationship with businesses and to cash in on big advertising dollars. As well as teaming with local businesses, contracts with big corporations are very much part of the growth plan. In April, at the height of the global lockdown, it launched 'Neighbors Helping Neighbors' with Walmart — a service that connects elderly or less-able members with other members willing to get groceries for them. "This has obviously been a critical service during the COVID-19 lockdown but we expect it will continue and grow," said Prakash.