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Snapchat is moving its international operations to London

US tech giant Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has confirmed it is to base its international operations in London.

According to the FT (paywall), the company has created a new UK entity, Snap Group Limited, and will now be expanding its London base with a new site near its Soho office and create new positions to accommodate its expanded UK presence.

It means the company will now process revenues from all sales where it does not have a presence in the UK, which will include its France, Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia teams initially.

The move goes against the grain of rival tech giants such as Google and Apple who have opted to establish their international operations in countries with more favourable tax conditions such as Luxembourg and Ireland.

However, recent controversies such as Google’s £130m tax ‘sweetheart’ deal with the HMRC and Facebook’s routing of its advertising revenues through the Irish Republic have attracted widespread condemnation from policymakers and the public, a climate which is likely to have influenced Snap’s decision.

Claire Valoti, General Manager of Snap Group in the UK, said: “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.”

The US tech giant, which is currently planning to go public, currently hires around 75 staff in the capital at its Soho office, which opened at the end of 2015.

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