Snapchat shrugs off Brexit to open international HQ in UK

Snapchat has announced it office in the UK will act as the international headquarters for all sales operations outside of the US.

While there are numerous companies who have chosen more tax-friendly countries such as Ireland or the Netherlands, according to the Financial Times, the UK will book all revenues for customers in the country, as well as countries which doesn’t have local representation. The move accompanies Snapchat ambitions to grow rapidly and fulfil plans to go public this year with a valuation of up to $25 billion.

“We believe in the UK creative industries,” Claire Valoti, general manager of Snap Group in the UK, told the FT. “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 already has an office in the UK which it opened in 2015, currently standing at 75 sales staff, though this number is likely to increase in the coming months, and will also be supported by a number of engineers.

The move could also be perceived as an indicator that the Brexit decision may not have the impact some pro-Europe campaigners proclaimed in the build up to the referendum. While both sides are guilty of scare-mongering and making ‘creative’ use of statistics, pro-European predicted the end-of-days and economic landslides should the country elect to leave the union.

Since the referendum, not only has Snapchat announced expansion in the UK, Facebook will hire an additional 500 people, Apple will consolidate its workforce in the refurbished Battersea Power Station, Google will grow its London workforce by 3000, and IBM said it will be opening four new data centres.

The fact the technology sector in the UK has seemed to pick up after Brexit, and politicians are now seen as floundering during the exit-negotiation stages, possibly hints that neither side had a clue what they were talking about in the first place.