Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Twitter ignores China ban to target ad dollars with new exec appointment

twitter suspends extremist accounts app
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Twitter isn’t going to let a paltry ban on its platform stop it from chasing down lucrative advertising revenue in China.

The microblogging network’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has made official the appointment of a greater China managing director, a key executive position within the company. Hong Kong-based tech industry veteran Kathy Chen has been assigned the role, which in her words will see her “create more value for Chinese enterprises, creators, partners, and developers.” That in turn will offer more dollars for Twitter, so everyone’s happy. Check out a video below, in which Chen herself talks of her new role.

T-Mobile Offer: Buy the LG G5 and get a free battery and cradle bundle

https://twitter.com/TwitterGCN/status/720777464440598528

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Twitter VP for Asia Pacific, Shailesh Rao, stated, “We’ve seen a 340 percent growth in the number of advertisers [using Twitter], and the types of advertisers are diverse.” Those Chinese companies looking to promote their products to Twitter’s 320 million user base include tech brands Lenovo Group, and Huawei Technologies, as well as domestic media outlets like the state-owned Xinhua news agency, and People’s Daily.

Chen brings with her years of experience within the information technology industry. She previously held exec positions at Microsoft — where she oversaw the company’s cloud and enterprise products partnerships — and Cisco Systems. Chen takes over the role from Peter Greenberger, who will now assume the position of Asia-Pacific head of global brands and agencies at Twitter.

Twitter will reportedly be targeting China through its enterprise offerings, including its data analytics program and Fabric mobile platform, which allows developers to build apps.

Strict Web censorship laws have not stopped Western social media companies from actively pursuing China. Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mounted a PR onslaught on his trip to Beijing to attend the China Development Forum.

Much like its counterpart LinkedIn, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world for Twitter in terms of active user growth. Despite being blocked in China since 2009, it is clear to see why Twitter still values the country as a “critical component” within the region.

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
Thanks to Tapbots’ Ivory app, I’m finally ready to ditch Twitter for good
Profile displayed in Ivory app

Ever since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, it’s been one chaotic new thing after another. You literally cannot go a day (or a few days or even a week) without some stupid new change to the site — whether it’s about checkmarks for verified or Twitter Blue subscriber accounts, how links to other social networks are banned and then reversed, view counts on Tweets, or something else. I can’t keep up with every little thing that has happened since the beginning of November, and it feels like the spotlight is always on the toxicity of the site in general.

New Twitter alternatives have been popping up recently, but it seems that the most popular one continues to be Mastodon. I originally made a Mastodon account back in 2018 when it first launched, but it never clicked with me back then, and I eventually went back to Twitter. With the Musk mess, I tried going back to Mastodon, but again, it didn’t really click with me — until Tweetbot developer, Tapbots, revealed its next project: Ivory.
The significance of Tapbots and Tweetbot

Read more
Twitter bans, then unbans account tracking Elon Musk’s jet
A digital image of Elon Musk in front of a stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating.

Hours after Twitter suspended the account that tracks the movements of Elon Musk’s private jet, the company reversed its decision and put it back online.

Twitter also suspended the account of Jack Sweeney, the person behind @elonjet, and @jxacksweeney remains out of action at the time of writing.

Read more
What is Twitter Blue and is it worth it?
Twitter Blue menu option on a white screen background which is on a black background.

If you spend time on Twitter, you've probably heard the phrase "Twitter Blue" at some point and wondered what exactly it is. We're not talking about the signature shade of blue featured in its logo -- we're talking about the premium version of Twitter.

That's right. There's a paid tier for Twitter that many people don't even know exists that launched in July of 2021. And then relaunched again under Elon Musk's ownership in November 2022. Don't worry -- we'll explain everything below.
What is Twitter Blue?

Read more