Project Overview

City Xperience is a white-label city discovery platform that has grown from a single-city website into a multi-city franchise. Originally launched as Oradea Experience, the platform now operates under the City Xperience brand across two cities: Oradea Experience (oradeaexperience.ro) and Cluj Xperience (clujxperience.ro), each with unique branding, colors, logos, and locally curated content.

The ecosystem includes two independent websites built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS, a shared mobile app 'City Xperience' published on both the App Store and Google Play built with React Native and Expo, and a Node.js/Express backend with MongoDB. The platform connects locals and visitors with events, businesses, startup ideas, and community discussions.

• Frontend Development: Built the complete frontend for both city websites using Next.js with Tailwind CSS. Implemented responsive layouts, interactive components, real-time event carousels, and white-label theming that allows each city deployment to maintain its own visual identity while sharing the same codebase.
• Mobile App Development: Contributed to the React Native/Expo mobile app "City Xperience" which serves both cities from a single codebase. Features include camera-based QR scanning, push notifications, location services, and a fully native UI that adapts to each city's branding.
• Gamification System: Implemented a comprehensive engagement system with points, achievements, badges, and leaderboards. The community shop allows users to redeem earned points for rewards provided by local partner businesses.
• White-Label Architecture: Designed the franchise-ready system that enables rapid deployment to new cities. Each city instance has independent branding, content, and community while sharing the technical infrastructure.

The City Xperience Franchise

The City Xperience brand operates as a franchise model where each city gets its own independent platform with unique branding, while sharing the same technical infrastructure and mobile app. Here's how the ecosystem is structured:

Both cities share a common mobile application, City Xperience, available on the App Store and Google Play. The app automatically adapts its branding, content, and community features based on the selected city, providing a fully native experience for each franchise while maintaining a single codebase.

Technical Details

The City Xperience websites are built using Next.js with React and Tailwind CSS, providing excellent performance, SEO optimization, and server-side rendering. Each city deployment uses environment-based configuration to customize branding, colors, logos, and content while sharing the same application code. The styling adapts through CSS custom properties that each deployment defines independently.

The platform architecture includes a Node.js/Express backend with MongoDB for data persistence, Passport.js for authentication (local, Google OAuth, Apple Sign-In), Stripe for event ticketing and payments, Mailgun for transactional emails, and Google Maps for location-based features. I was responsible for all frontend architecture, state management, API integration, and UI/UX design, collaborating closely with a backend developer on the server-side systems.

The web platforms feature comprehensive functionality including event discovery with filtering and search, business directory with Google Maps integration, community forum, startup ideas section, user profiles with QR-based check-ins, giveaways, surveys, subscription management, and interactive city exploration maps. The franchise model has been validated with the successful expansion to Cluj, establishing a separate legal entity (Cluj Experience SRL) while maintaining technical consistency.

Results

The City Xperience platform has achieved significant traction with 5,900+ registered users on the Oradea deployment alone, 120+ businesses onboarded, 300+ events published, and hundreds of rewards in the community shop. The successful franchise expansion to Cluj validates the white-label model, with Cluj Xperience operating under its own legal entity (Cluj Experience SRL) and community. The shared mobile app 'City Xperience' on the App Store and Google Play serves both cities from a unified experience. The platform continues to grow with plans for additional city deployments across Romania.

The website and mobile apps feature a modern, responsive design with excellent performance and user experience. Each city maintains its own visual identity while benefiting from shared technical improvements and feature development.