Amazon today announced it will open an international development and R&D centre in London. The centre will be mostly involved with Amazon’s digital media projects including games console, smartphone, tablet and smart TV digital services. Hundreds of employees will work at a new eight floor, 47,000sqft office in Glasshouse Yard, Barbican. This is close to the technology hub of Old Street, AKA “TechCity” or “Silicon Roundabout”.
The new Amazon Digital Media Development Centre will be opening later this year which is a coup for London and will bring more very welcome hi-tech jobs and income to the English capital. Amazon Spokesperson Paula Byrne said “London is a hotbed of tech talent and testament to that fact is Amazon choosing the capital as the location for the new global digital media development centre. Innovation is part of the Amazon DNA and we are creating a British centre of excellence to design and develop the next generation of TV and film services for a wide range of digital devices.” Amazon acquired Lovefilm and Pushbutton, both London based developers of media-on-demand services within the last 18 months. So the new London base has a core of workers already in place.
London Mayor Boris Johnson was understandably pleased about the news. He said “I am thrilled to welcome Amazon's fantastic new international digital centre to London. Amazon's investment propels us well up the league table of global tech cities and we thank them for their vote of confidence”.
It’s good to hear of more technology and creative content jobs coming to the UK. This year we have also had news of the Google Campus opening in London, Silicon Valley Bank opening in London and Kickstarter heading to the UK to make more practical use of our untapped geek resources.
