Twitter Inc’s (NYSE:TWTR) executive Kathy Chen announced her resignation via Twitter over the weekend, after working eight months in Greater China.
Whilst domestic services such as Sina Weibo microblogging platform and Tencent’s WeChat messaging app (HKG:0700) are more widely used within China, Chinese entities such as the state news agency Xinhua, use Twitter to reach audiences abroad.
Twitter has been blocked in China since 2009 but continues to be used through virtual private networks (VPN).
Chen took to Twitter to announce her resignation from the job.
“Now that the Twitter APAC team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave the company,” she wrote.
“We remain committed to this market,” Chen tweeting, adding that the Hong Kong office would remain open.
Despite its ban, Twitter has been relatively successful in China. Its Greater China advertiser base has almost increased by 400 percent over the past two years making it one of the firm’s fastest growing revenue markets in Asia Pacific.
China has condemned social media such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter in the past, claiming it is a hotbed for fake news and cyber terrorism. It has sent many warnings to tech companies who are keen to take a slice of the world’s largest population of internet users.
“When China’s economy was really on fire it created enough smoke to obscure the realities of what foreign tech companies were really going to be permitted to do here,” says Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.
“You are getting more companies who are beginning to question the value of the investments they are making here.”
In her series of tweets over the weekend, Chen said she plans to take some time off to recharge, study international cultures and pursue other international business opportunities.