Facebook's first engineering centre outside the United States opened in London on Tuesday, boosting the British government's ambition to make the digital economy a central plank of its growth strategy.
The company's vice-president of engineering, Mike Schroepfer, said that London is "rapidly emerging as a global technology hub", providing access to the best engineers and a place where other talented engineers would be willing to relocate.
The London team will develop products to improve the Facebook experience on mobile devices and perform work on the social network's platform, Schroepfer said.
Developing mobile products is a priority for Facebook. The social network crossed the billion threshold this month, but it has struggled to make money from the growing numbers of people accessing its services on smartphones.
British finance minister George Osborne, who attended the opening in Covent Garden, central London, said that Facebook's move highlighted the attractiveness of the city for technology businesses.
Read More . . . .