"We have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. A kindness reminder pops up when it detects text that has been flagged as inappropriate in the past; this makes people step back and think again before posting. Our content teams are also constantly monitoring activity across the platform," he said.
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.
At the end of 2019, it launched Local Deals, where businesses could target direct marketing only to people living near their premises. Door-to-door mailing is time- and labor-intensive for a small business, and many inboxes are already packed with promotional mail.
The idea is that the members on Nextdoor have already signed up to be a part of the local conversation and are more likely to want to support the shops and restaurants down the street.
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.
Having raised $170 million in its last funding round, Nextdoor is comfortably in unicorn territory with a current valuation of $2.17 billion. It was well capitalized to strengthen communities across the world before COVID-19.
In fact, as citizens get ready to head out into the world beyond our zip code and reflect on the lockdown period, we may ask ourselves why we dodged our neighbors for so long.