Snap Inc., the parent company behind the uber popular ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, is now planning to step foot into the Dragon’s quarters. The company is looking to expand beyond the States and set up a research and development center in Shenzhen, China. Thus, the company has already started out on a hunt to onboard Android and iOS engineers who’ll be working on the app’s core camera features.
According to a NetEase report, the California-based social media giant is targeting candidates with over three years of software development experience in the field relevant to them. It might try to rope in experienced individuals from the likes of Alibaba, Tencent or Baidu to lay the groundwork for its alleged expansion into an unexplored territory. Some of the engineers working at the Chinese offices might also stumble upon a chance to relocate to the U.S headquarters in the long run.
Snapchat’s parent is one of the first U.S technology giants showing interest in expansion to China. Other social media and technology giants have backed out from China due to user privacy concerns and unnecessary bans (or rules) for the so-called protection of its citizens.
Snap Inc. is, however, daring to navigate through the numerous laws that have been imposed on the populace of the country. Currently, the company’s app ‘Snapchat’ is not accessible to the masses and VPN services are required to spoof networks and connect to the app on their handheld devices. But the company might now be looking to tweak their app to adhere to the country’s laws and tackle a massive population of about 1.4 billion people.
Though the company might be heading in the correct direction with this decision but there is a major concern of competition in China. Due to the non-existence of U.S technology giants in the country, the homebrewed giants have conquered the markets. Following along these lines, a Snapchat clone called ‘Snow’ is already available to the Chinese masses and has bagged a massive $45Mn from Line for further development of the same. It will compete with the same and feel the heat if it decides to venture into the realms of the most populous countries of the planet.
