Recent Twitter news revealed that the social networking site has announced a new head for its operations in Greater China. This comes after the number of advertisers using the service has grown in the area.
The South China Morning Post reported that Twitter has appointed a new head for its Greater China office. Moreover, the website had more than 300 percent growth in terms of its Chinese advertisers in the past year.
Since 2009, Twitter has been blocked in mainland China. In March last year, the San Francisco-based company opened a Hong Kong office to invite Chinese companies to advertise with them.
"We've seen a 340 per cent growth in the number of advertisers [using Twitter], and the types of advertisers are diverse," Twitter vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets Shailesh Rao said. The company has hired technology executive Kathy Chen as its new managing director for its Greater China office.
"Because of the success we've seen, we want to expand the investment we're making in [the region]," Rao said. "Kathy Chen will be responsible for developing the strategy and running the business."
Chen previously worked with Microsoft and Cisco. She will be taking over Peter Greenberger, who is now the sia-Pacific head of global brands and agencies at the company. Twitter's major Chinese advertisers include Lenovo, Huawei and state-owned media outlets such as Xinhua news as well as People's Daily.
"Asia-Pacific is the largest region in the world for us in terms of total number of active users, and it is also the fastest-growing region in terms of active user growth," Rao added. "We view Greater China as a critical component [of the region]."
According to FirstFT, the company would be focusing its resources on its enterprise offerings like advertising. "We will look to Kathy's leadership to help us identify ways in which Twitter's platform and technology assets can be utilised to create further value for enterprises, creators, influencers, partners and developers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan," Twitter said.
