Neighbourly launches local NZ social media network

Following a trial run, Neighbourly launched nationwide this week.

Neighbourly is a New Zealand-owned and operated social network for people who live near each other. It is partly a digital version of neighbourhood watch, partly a replacement for the postcards on noticeboards and in shop windows and partly an online version of what used to be called ‘the parish pump’.

Neighbourly’s founders realised it is now easier to bring people living close to each other together online than to have them meet up in the physical world.

A digital community, that's actually a community

The sad truth is that while most of us still live in communities, they are not necessarily close geographic communities. We tend to congregate online and in the physical world with people who share common values, ideas and interests. These matter more today than a shared post-code.

I suspect this is particularly true in a city like Auckland where you need to jump in a car to do almost anything. Aucklanders may have friend across the town, but can still be alienation from those living in the same street.

So starting a local social network to replace chatting over the garden fence or outside the school gate makes sense. Presumably Neighbourly will earn money from encouraging interactions.

Find me a babysitter

Apparently the most common use of the service at the moment is to find babysitters or to borrow water-blasters and similar items.

Will Neighbourly take off? I don’t know the answer to this. Local social networks are a big deal overseas, some work, some don’t.

The big question is what is the business model?

It’s not clear to me how Neighbourly will make money. Commercial online sites are often so heavily plastered with advertising, that they quickly become useless or annoying. I doubt many people would pay Neighbourly a subscription. The other possibility is that the company collects data which it can then sell to marketers.