The news: Nextdoor is redesigning around the three hyperlocal utilities of real-time safety alerts with precise geographic targeting, curated local news from thousands of small publishers, and AI-powered neighborhood recommendations, per an EMARKETER interview with CEO Nirav Tolia.

The new Nextdoor will focus on neighborhood-level depth, partnering with over 3,500 local news publishers to deliver 50,000 articles weekly. Only 16% of small businesses currently leverage local media partnerships—suggesting room for platforms like Nextdoor to build revenue streams through localized advertising.

The platform is simultaneously launching "Faves," an AI feature that transforms 15 years of neighbor conversations into personalized local recommendations. These recommendations are built on human-verified neighbor input—offering the kind of context 52% of US adults say is necessary to trust local business reviews.

Nextdoor’s revamp: While most tech platforms chase scale, Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia is taking a different route—acknowledging past UX issues and inconsistent daily engagement.

• The monetization model behind the platform’s rebuild is straightforward, Tolia said. “The more our neighbors use the platform, the more ad inventory is created, the more revenue we can generate.”
• There's a meaningful opportunity here: While just 20% of US ad buyers plan to increase spending next year on local news content, 55% are prioritizing first-party data placements—an area where Nextdoor offers both.

Why it matters: With more US adults working from home than ever before, people spend three to four times more waking hours in their neighborhoods than before the pandemic, creating unprecedented demand for local information.

The platform's unique positioning—100 million registered users with verified addresses across 11 countries—creates what Tolia calls an "impossible-to-replicate foundation." Unlike general social platforms, Nextdoor’s geospatial data enables precise emergency alerts and hyperlocal content curation that competitors can’t replicate.

Local news publishers struggling with declining readership could gain access to engaged neighborhood audiences. And with only 33% of agency professionals still considering local broadcast/cable TV a “must-buy,” Nextdoor has a chance to capture dollars migrating from traditional local media.

Meanwhile, small businesses—47% of which rely on social media and 42% on community events for local engagement—could find in Nextdoor a scalable platform for hyperlocal outreach, content promotion, and verified customer connection.

Our take: Tolia's bet on hyperlocal depth over scale makes business sense, especially given remote work trends.

The company's competitive advantage isn't in taking Facebook or X head-on—it's perfecting verified neighbor identity and precise location data that creates valuable ad inventory.

This approach could work where previous attempts may have underdelivered, but success depends on execution. If Nextdoor can become truly essential infrastructure for neighborhoods, the revenues will follow naturally.