Twitter China CEO Kathy Chen resigns from post

The exodus of high-profile executives at Twitter continues In China as the company’s managing director in the country, Kathy Chen, has quit. “Now that the Twitter APAC (Asia-Pacific) team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave the company,” Chen tweeted. Chen had joined Twitter in April, 2016. Twitter was not able to legally operate in China due to a government-imposed ban in place. However, the company opened up a Hong Kong office in 2015 to pursue Chinese advertisers. “Chen was brought on board to oversee this effort and to find ways for developers and other businesses in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to be able to use the platform,” the report noted. Chen said that since Twitter and Chinese advertisers had developed a relationship, her job was done. She added that the advertiser-base in China had grown nearly 400 per cent over the past two years. According to a report in the VentureBeat, Chen did not disclose her future plans, except to say in a tweet that she would “take some time off to recharge, study about different cultures and then pursue more international business opportunities.” Earlier, Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain, Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger and its vice President for products Josh McFarland also quit. Twitter is going through a major overhaul under CEO Jack Dorsey as many top-notch executives have quit the company in the recent past. Dorsey brought in two board members in a bid to revive the company and earn the trust of investors. Twitter editorial director Karen Wickre and Shariq Rizvi, who co-founded the direct response ads team at Twitter, both announced their departures in 2016. IANS