Leading Expat Community InterNations Reaches Two Million Members

A Year of Strong Growth

Overall, InterNations welcomed 400,000 new members in 2015 and managed to double its website activity. Especially popular among the expat community are the networking functions, including setting up a personal profile or sending contact requests and private messages to other members. Furthermore, InterNations members regularly check their personalized calendar for events and activities to take part in.

“We believe that the success of InterNations is primarily based on our efforts to address our members’ needs in the best possible way. Last year, for example, we focused on improving the user experience on our platform by updating the existing infrastructure and introducing a variety of new functionalities,” Philipp von Plato, Founder & Co-CEO of InterNations, explains. “We are proud to say that the response was overwhelming: The number of connections initiated on our platform has risen by 753 percent as compared to last year, and personal messages also show an impressive increase of 180 percent.”

Giving Back to the Local Community

Traveling the world for personal reasons such as career, love or simply curiosity is a privilege not everyone has; therefore giving something back to the world is an integral part of InterNations.

“People who move abroad often feel the urge to somehow serve the local community in their new place of residence, especially if it has far lower living standards than those enjoyed by the expat population. With Volunteer Groups in 32 different cities, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile, to name just a few, InterNations offers its members an easy and safe way of supporting a good cause in their new home,” says Malte Zeeck, Founder & Co-CEO of InterNations.

In 2015, InterNations rolled out a new event format in Munich, Vienna, Barcelona, Madrid and Singapore: For its Social Impact Nights, InterNations invites experts from local non-profit organizations and social businesses to speak about a variety of socially relevant topics. Complemented by ever-increasing opportunities for donating time and money to people in need, the whole initiative has been well received among the network’s members: 25,000 people joined an InterNations Volunteer Group last year, which is a plus of 56 percent since 2014.

Temenuga Bakalska, a Bulgarian expat who currently lives in Munich, beautifully explains these efforts: “All our activities have one goal in common — to connect those in need with those who like to give a helping hand and make a difference for both.”

What Expats Struggle With — and How InterNations Can Help

Based on findings by international market research and consulting company Finaccord, there are currently close to 53 million expats in the world, with an estimated growth of up to 56.8 million by 2017. Findings from the InterNations Expat Insider 2015 survey show that the most common problems among them are the loss of a personal support network, worries about future finances and the difficulty of maintaining a relationship. Other concerns are the trouble of making new friends, the language barriers or simply suffering from culture shock.

From the moment of moving abroad until settling in and beyond — InterNations strives to make the experience abroad as enjoyable as possible for every single expat around the world. In 2016, the platform will not only continue to provide useful local information and global networking opportunities, but will also launch a mobile app to make it easier for members to access the network while on the go.