Facebook shuts down its Nextdoor clone next month, after testing in the US and Canada
Meta today confirmed the shutdown of Neighborhoods, its Nextdoor clone launched last year to standardize how neighbors connect and share local news and information on Facebook. While Neighbors on Facebook typically used the company's Facebook Groups product to post updates with their local community, the Neighborhoods project involved special features, such as subprofiles for members and named moderators who would review comments and posts, among other things.
The company said it initially invested in Neighborhoods because it saw how popular local content was on its platform. But eventually, Facebook realized that the best way to move forward in this area was to allow people to continue using Facebook Groups, as they had before.
First quietly tested in Calgary, Canada in 2020, before rolling out more formally in Canada and the United States last year, Neighborhoods allowed users to create special profiles that they could fill in with personalized biographies and their interests.
The product's arrival (not by chance, we bet) was timed just before Nextdoor's public debut. The long-running neighborhood social network had combined with a SPAC in November 2021, and the neighborhoods could have served to curb investor appetite for the new public company.
Nextdoor rose to the challenge with updates to its own product soon after Facebook entered its marketplace. Earlier this year, Nextdoor doubled down on the social elements of its product with an update that revamped its service with new user profiles, a revamped conversation-focused feed, a visual refresh and other creative features. of community.
Facebook Neighborhoods' shutdown was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who posted a screenshot sent by a Facebook group where a product manager announced the company's plans to end the test. The message said Neighborhoods had expanded to "hundreds of local communities" across the United States and Canada, but would no longer be available starting October 1.
Facebook's decision to move away from local content comes at a time when the company is pushing harder to become a recommendation and content discovery engine as it intensifies its competition with TikTok. This new discovery engine driving the change aims to surface more content from public communities, not necessarily the private groups that would have been found in a Neighborhoods feature.
Meta today confirmed the shutdown of Neighborhoods, its Nextdoor clone launched last year to standardize how neighbors connect and share local news and information on Facebook. While Neighbors on Facebook typically used the company's Facebook Groups product to post updates with their local community, the Neighborhoods project involved special features, such as subprofiles for members and named moderators who would review comments and posts, among other things.
The company said it initially invested in Neighborhoods because it saw how popular local content was on its platform. But eventually, Facebook realized that the best way to move forward in this area was to allow people to continue using Facebook Groups, as they had before.
First quietly tested in Calgary, Canada in 2020, before rolling out more formally in Canada and the United States last year, Neighborhoods allowed users to create special profiles that they could fill in with personalized biographies and their interests.
The product's arrival (not by chance, we bet) was timed just before Nextdoor's public debut. The long-running neighborhood social network had combined with a SPAC in November 2021, and the neighborhoods could have served to curb investor appetite for the new public company.
Nextdoor rose to the challenge with updates to its own product soon after Facebook entered its marketplace. Earlier this year, Nextdoor doubled down on the social elements of its product with an update that revamped its service with new user profiles, a revamped conversation-focused feed, a visual refresh and other creative features. of community.
Facebook Neighborhoods' shutdown was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who posted a screenshot sent by a Facebook group where a product manager announced the company's plans to end the test. The message said Neighborhoods had expanded to "hundreds of local communities" across the United States and Canada, but would no longer be available starting October 1.
Facebook's decision to move away from local content comes at a time when the company is pushing harder to become a recommendation and content discovery engine as it intensifies its competition with TikTok. This new discovery engine driving the change aims to surface more content from public communities, not necessarily the private groups that would have been found in a Neighborhoods feature.
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