The company behind Snapchat has revealed it will establish its international headquarters in London to signal a post-Brexit boost for Britain.
The Los Angeles-based mobile messaging start-up already has offices near Soho but will soon open a new site nearby which will act as its European base.
The company, valued at $25 billion, has bucked the trend by setting up its European headquarters in the UK, which will be seen as a boost to British business post-Brexit.
Other tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter chose Ireland, the Netherlands or Luxembourg as their bases to take advantages of lower taxes.
Snap Group Limited, the company’s new UK arm, will book revenue from sales made to UK customers in countries where Snapchat has no local entity or salesforce.
A Snap spokeswoman said: “I am happy to confirm that the UK is the Snap Inc. family’s hub outside the US. The UK’s strong creative industries make this a great place to build a global business.”
In London, the company has more than 75 staff in its three storey office in Soho, up from just six last year.
The company will hire additional workers including a number of engineers when the new offices are built.
Claire Valoti, General Manager of Snap Group Limited in the UK: “We believe in the UK creative industries. The UK is where our advertising clients are, where more than 10m daily Snapchatters are, and where we’ve already begun to hire talent.”
Snapchat has more than 150 million daily active users across the world with more than 10 million estimated in Britain.
