IDA IRELAND has said it is still hopeful Twitter might establish its international headquarters in Ireland despite the fact that the popular micro-blogging service has begun to hire staff in London.
“IDA understands that no decision has been announced or made on an international headquarters for Twitter,” said Thomas McEvoy, “We would hope to be still in contention when that decision is made.”
However, The Irish Timeshas learned that a number of other small but fast-growing US internet companies will announce in the coming months that they are establishing their European bases in Britain.
They include Foursquare, the location-based social networking service co-founded by Irish-American Dennis Crowley. The New York firm has just over 60 staff but has enjoyed rapid growth since its launch in March 2009. It now has more than eight million users worldwide, about 35,000 people each day.
Mr Crowley was recently included in the Silicon Valley 50 of the most influential Irish and Irish American technology executives by the Irish Technology Leadership Group.
Eventbrite, a web-based tool for organising events and selling tickets, and Gowalla, a service founded in Texas which is similar to Foursquare, are both also expected to announce London offices shortly.
Under the new Conservative-Liberal coalition, UK Trade Investment, which fulfils a similar function to the IDA in attracting inward investment, has been extremely active in courting the new generation of internet companies.
The success of Ireland in attracting the likes of Facebook, Zynga, LinkedIn, Google and Electronic Arts has not gone unnoticed in Britain and further afield in Europe.
Earlier this week, Twitter began to advertise for jobs it wanted to fill in London. This led to speculation that Ireland had lost out to Britain in the competition for Twitter’s international headquarters.
However, Mr McEvoy pointed out it was not unusual for media companies like Twitter to want to have a base in media hubs such as London and Berlin. “Ireland is still attractive for other international activities,” he said.
One informed industry source suggested Twitter was looking at establishing its Irish base in Cork rather than Dublin. This would fit with the IDA’s policy of regional development in locations outside Dublin.
Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, and games companies Big Fish and Activision Blizzard have established bases in Cork in recent years, and the city has a long heritage of attracting foreign investment from international pharmaceutical firms.
Twitter celebrated its fifth birthday last month and has become an internet phenomenon during its short history. It employs 400 staff at offices in San Francisco and was recently the beneficiary of a new tax law passed by the city councillors to keep the company within the city limits.
About 500,000 new Twitter accounts are being created every day and users send more than 140 million Tweets a day.
