Forget Ireland. Snapchat picks London as its global headquarters
- by Nick Cohen
- in Industry
- — Jan 11, 2017
Snap Inc, previously known as Snapchat, is going to set up its global headquarter in the United Kingdom, a decision which is seen as a vote of confidence for the Britain following the Brexit.
But guess what? It didn't.
This will expose Snap to the UK's higher tax rate, deviating from the trend set by companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon, which have favoured the lower tax regions of Ireland and Luxembourg.
The announcement means that revenues from sales in the United Kingdom and in countries where Snapchat has "no local entity or salesforce" will be booked through the UK. By booking all its non-US revenue through its United Kingdom office, Snap will bypass this wrangling entirely.
We pay for your stories! And it seems like photo-sharing app Snapchat has taken notice.
The firm's London office in Soho now has 75 employees, up from six past year, and is already hiring an extra number of engineers, designers and financial analysts.
Claire Valoti, general manager of Snap Group in the United Kingdom, said: 'We believe in the United Kingdom creative industries.
The number of staff in the United Kingdom, where 10m of its 150m global users use the app each day, has already grown to 75 from nine this time a year ago.
The firm behind the popular disappearing message application says it has more than 150 million daily active users, including 50 million in Europe.
Snap hired Valoti from Facebook, where she was the director of agency partnerships. Whatever's coming next for the bright yellow brand, it'll be coming out of the UK.
The move is in keeping with Snap's identity: Its U.S. headquarters is located roughly 300 miles south of Silicon Valley in the colorful beach town of Venice, California.
In addition, eMarketer expects Snap to add 26.9 million more users by 2020, double what Twitter and Pinterest are expected to add.
