Snapchat has chosen the UK to be its first headquarters outside the US due to the country’s “strong creative industries” and 10 million daily Snapchatters.
The self-proclaimed camera company confirmed the news today (10 January) after a report by the Financial Times.
“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,” says Claire Valoti, general manager of Snap Group Limited in the UK.
A spokeswoman says the move was a “common sense decision”, as it will align its corporate structure with its business.
Its UK entity will book revenue from sales made to customers in the UK. In countries where the company has no local salesforce, the clients will be served by the UK team.
The brand currently has more than 75 staff in the UK, up from six this time last year. It has a three-story office in central London and will soon open an additional site nearby.
Snapchat, which has more than 150m daily active users globally, seemingly distanced itself from the social media space by removing the ‘chat’ from its name and rebranding to just Snap Inc in September last year.
In 2016, it focused heavily on innovation by launching ‘Snapchat Spectacles’ – glasses that can record 30 second videos and look very much like the younger, trendier sibling of Google Glass. It also launched group chat, on-demand geofilters and ‘Memories’, which is the brand’s version of a camera roll.
Other social media giants that have previously made a similar move are Facebook and Twitter, which have set up their European HQ in Dublin, Ireland.
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Source: Marketing Week
Snapchat shows ‘belief in UK creative industry’ as it opens international HQ