Facebook opens first engineering base in UK

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Social networking giant Facebook, has opened its engineering office in the UK. The new engineering office is the first of its kind outside the United States. The employees at the London site are expected to begin work later this month in mobile products among others.

Mike Schroepfer, the Facebook vice president of engineering said, “We’re excited to be building our first major European engineering centre in a city that is rapidly emerging as a global technology hub.” Schroepfer also said that the London engineering team will play a crucial role in the development of future products as well as core technology for the social network.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said that London has a fantastic wealth of digital talent along with an increasing group of young innovators and tech entrepreneurs. Johnson also said that the arrival of the engineering team of Facebook is a sign of confidence, which indicates the status of the city as a world leading centre for digital business.

The team in London will be focusing on server side performance enhancements for mobiles. This is a platform which Facebook values, due to the 600 million users who log in to their accounts through mobile devices. This is also considered to be the key growth area for Facebook.