Following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union last year, concerns were raised about the business environment in the country. Many suggested that companies which wanted a wider reach into the European market would decide against setting up operations in London which has long been the preferred business destination for companies competing in Europe. Snapchat doesn’t seem to be too worried by the so-called Brexit, it has announced that its international HQ will be opened in London.
Snapchat has said that London is going to be home to its international operations. The HQ in Britain will enable the company to book sales in the United Kingdom as well as in other countries where it doesn’t have a local entity. This will save Snapchat the trouble of routing them through lower tax jurisdictions like Luxembourg and Ireland like many tech companies based in the United States already do.
This is certainly an unusual move for a U.S. tech company since many of Snapchat’s counterparts set up their international HQs in the aforementioned locations to enjoy tax breaks. However, since the European Commission has been coming down hard on some of their tax breaks, perhaps Snapchat just wants to spare itself the drama.
The company said that it has confidence in the UK’s strong creative industries which make it a “great place to build a global business.” The general manager of Snap Group in the UK Claire Valoti added: “The UK is where our advertising clients are, where more than 10 million daily Snapchatters are, and where we’ve already begun to hire talent.”