Getting Started

NextBlock is an online community for real neighbours to communicate, share and help. 

Users find out what's happening around their community on NextBlock, organize used goods transfers, interest groups, group buys, and community events . Neighbours communicate and carry out mutual help activities. 

Our goal here at NextBlock  is to cultivate a better world where everyone has a neighbourhood they can rely on, and our mission is to build trusted connections among neighbours and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services.

At its essence, NextBlock is a social platform used to connect neighbours. Imagine a platform like Facebook or Instagram, but instead of your newsfeed being filled with friends and family, it's the people who live in your neighbourhood.

When our team initially came together, we realized that despite technology's ability to connect people and communities digitally, people have, in actuality, become more disconnected in real life.

We often hear the term "Kampung Spirit" from the older folks and stories of "my mother can borrow salt from the neighbour across the road" but all we see nowadays are shut doors in the housing estates and people living their own detached lives from the community.

In his book - Bowling Alone, Dr. Robert Putnam details the many reasons why people have lost touch with their communities and how has that impacted individuals, neighbourhoods, societies, and the world at large. He also defined a metric: social capital, which is a measure of the number of people you know in your community that you can rely on for help and favours.

His research concludes that all communities, when there is more social capital, have better outcomes. Crime rates drop, property values increase, education and test scores improve. And people live longer in communities where they have the support of their neighbours.

We could easily assume that at least 30% of Singaporeans do not know a single neighbour by name. The NextBlock initiative was founded on the idea that we can make use of technology to bring the community back, connecting neighbours and building strong, sustainable estate ecosystems.

1. Lack of Interaction between neighbours

Neighbours are staying in close proximity of each other but they do not have a natural outlet for interaction in this digital age. Most of your neighbours' doors are closed and you probably do not know more than 10 of your neighbours staying within the same estate. 

2. Hyperlocalized Businesses unable to digitize effectively

Another key target group of people we are looking out for to help are Hyperlocalized businesses (e.g. the neighbourhood bread shop) with their potential clientele being people who stay around the vicinity, i.e. within a 2km radius. These neighbourhood SMEs do not have a digital landing platform to effectively grow their business on. 

Communities are constantly created online, but they don’t really translate into real life. 

NextBlock aims to bridge this gap and create a safe space where verified neighbours hold real discussions.  

Unlike conventional social networks like Facebook or Instagram where you are able to connect to anyone else in the world, your connections on NextBlock are exactly the folks that you meet at the bus-stop, coffeeshop or say hi in the lift. 

远水救不了近火, i.e. water from afar quenches not fire.

The information that you share with your neighbours are totally different from the content that you share with your friends.  

You don't post on your instagram when you need to borrow a ladder or found a bunch of keys at the local playground. You do not post on your facebook page to inform your friends that there is a suspicious character lurking in the estate. 

That's where NextBlock sets up to be different and to serve a different purpose for the community. 

NextBlock Exclusive Promotions and Campaigns

NextBlock frequently organizes promotions and campaigns such as complementary fitness events or sponsored giveaways through our various partnerships with our business partners, all in order to bring the greatest values to all our NextBlock users.  

NextBlock is focused and committed to building an app that truly brings value to all our users - whether they are residents of a certain estate or neighbourhood businesses. We have also gotten strong commitments from our team of investors who fully believe in the project and the value that we are going to bring as we redefine the entire neighbourhood and do not have a pressure to bring in revenue from the very first day. 

NextBlock team gives our strong commitment to our users that this app will NEVER be chargeable or any fees have to be paid in our bid to build more awesome digital communities. 

We however, as we search for a suitable and sustainable revenue model, while continuously growing estates digitally, will be exploring down the lines of Business Partnerships in particular to balance the revenue scales without compromising the values that we can bring to the estates, striving for win-win-win partnership models for NextBlock, Neighbourhood Businesses and Users of our app. 

In the next few years, Team NextBlock is 250% committed to building a product that all our users find value in and love. That is our mandate. :)

In order to ensure that you are a true resident of your estate on NextBlock, we issue verification codes unique to your estate. NextBlock sends these verification codes via postcards and these codes are tagged to your postal code. 

When you join the app and input this verification code during signup, you will automatically become a verified user. Alternatively, you can also input this verification code during the account verification process after you have registered an account.

A referral code refers to a verified neighbour’s unique invite code that can be found under the profile tab. When your referee registers as a NextBlock user via your referral code and becomes a verified user, both you and your referee can each earn 20 points, no matter which estate they belong to.