Snapchat parent Snap Inc. denied media reports that it is establishing its international headquarters in London.
Madhumita Murgia and Hannah Kuchler of Financial Times reported that all of the company?s sales outside of the U.S. will be booked out of London, starting with those made by its teams in France, Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia, and Snap Inc. confirmed that information in a blog post, writing:
Today, the media reported that we selected London as our international HQ. That is not true. We have one HQ, in Venice (Calif.), and many offices throughout the world.
We did, however, make a change to the way we operate our business in London. Going forward, we will bill our advertising revenue from the U.K. (and a few other countries) through a U.K. entity. This allows us to pay taxes in the U.K., which we believe is part of being a good local partner as we grow our business. We want to pay taxes in the countries where we sell advertising, and this is an important step in building the infrastructure to achieve that goal.
Snap Inc. currently has some 75 employees in London, according to Murgia and Kuchler, and it plans to seek a new space near its office in Soho and add staff, including engineers. Snap Group Limited U.K. general manager Claire Valoti told FT:
We believe in the U.K. creative industries. The U.K. is where our advertising clients are, where more than 10 million daily Snapchatters are and where we?ve already begun to hire talent.
And a Snap Inc. spokeswom...