Nextdoor, the $1.1B social network for neighbors, is finally expanding overseas

Robert Galbraith/Reuters

After promising international expansion for the last couple of years, Nextdoor, the social network for neighbors, is laying the groundwork for its move abroad.

The company has been testing the social network in the Netherlands, Business Insider has learned. A job listing for a United Kingdom country manager says the site plans to bring the service to that country in early 2016.

On Wednesday, Nextdoor e-mailed its users with a new privacy policy going into affect on January 7, 2016. Part of that policy is the creation of a new company, Nextdoor EMEA limited, and specific sections for its non-U.S. users. 

The company confirmed it's "actively exploring expansion", but declined to comment further. 

"Nextdoor has now been adopted by more than 50% of all U.S. neighborhoods. The company has always had ambitions of bringing its service to neighborhoods around the world," a Nextdoor spokesperson said in an e-mail. "We are actively exploring several countries for expansion, and will make official announcements in this regard in 2016."

The social network has been promising an overseas expansion for years. In 2012, it hired LinkedIn Veteran Minna King to be its VP of International and its CEO Nirav Tolia told Wired that it was in its early stages of planning for international growth. Wired crowned the local site "the future of global disaster response."

A year later, Tolia told All Things D that the site would head to Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom in early 2014 followed by Brazil and Japan. That international expansion didn't materialize over the next two years, but that hasn't seemed to slow down the attraction from investors. The company raised $110 million in March 2015, bringing the valuation of the hyper-local social network to more than $1.1 billion, and claims to be in more than 50 percent of all U.S. neighborhoods.

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