Meetup, the revolutionary digital nomad app that came to stay
Yhaicha Stibich
The platform connects you with different types of communities and it is present in 193 countries and takes you to more than 5,000 cities. One of these is the metropolitan city of Barcelona. In November of 2022, the Spanish parliament approved the digital nomad visa that would minimize fiscal regimes for startups via a new law that will come into effect in January of 2023. The government of Spain, intends to attract foreigner entrepreneurs or remote workers for a better economic flow and Meetup is the leading app for networking in all kinds of fields.
The idea of sharing common values with a big community began in 2002 and recently, the app completed 20 years of presence in the digital world. The main intention was to bring people together by offering real friendships, the opportunity of building healthy habits accompanied by new friends, fomenting your own career or even sharing your expertise. Anyone that is a user could participate or create a group and host his own event.
There is a variety of activities to do, such as language exchange at bars, bachata classes, informative classes, business meetings and even mental health support groups. Most of the events are offered in English and Spanish but there are other languages available, according to your location. The bilingualism of the app facilitates the interaction between the local and the foreigner to connect or even so, just people with the same interests and goals.
Moreover, searching through the app, it offered an event called ‘’Trauma mic’’ a Stand-Up Comedy show with vulnerable personal traumas. Organised by the comedians and hostess Mariah Girouard and Yoky Yu at the Barcelona Comedy Club, it held the description of ‘’Barcelona’s first Trauma-informed, hilarious yet vulnerability-infused open mic.’’ A type of event that enters into the category of mental health support. According to the research of National Library of Medicine (NIH), laughing can mitigate severe symptoms of depression and following the Frontiers of Psychology studies, it improves your social connections.
Thereupon, during an interview with the comedian and writer Girouard, she stated that ‘’Comedy and tragedy are really interlinked, my style of comedy is based on things that are hard because this is my way of overcoming it and its cathartic for me to perform and eventually it becomes cathartic for the audience as well’’. Dark humor it’s also a way of easing traumas. People that aren’t so open on going to a professional psychologist and view life in a more sarcastic way could enjoy this type of event, meanwhile he is subconsciously healing.
Throughout the years, the company focused on building up a loyal community and expanding was a consequence. According to Meetup’s database, they currently count on 49 million members, 330,000 groups and 100,000 events per week around the world. Therefore, promoting your own business is a continuous growth with sincere results. A Meetup membership is always free, where your own skills and interests already add value to the community. Although, during the six-month as an organizer the subscription to host a group event is 99 euros.
In an Open Letter from the Meetup CEO, David Siegel, thanking the community, he affirmed that they saw over 50 percent growth in the business during the pandemic of 2020. It marked a pitching point for the app, meaning that ‘’companies and small businesses are recognizing the power of and investing in developing communities. Not with traditional advertising, but by bringing people together’’ wrote Siegel.
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