Twitter’s China director tweets she is moving on, less than nine months after joining platform

Kathy Chen, the managing director of Greater China for microblogging service Twitter, tweeted on Saturday that she was ready to move on – less than nine months after she was appointed to her current position.

In 12 separate tweets, Chen said Twitter’s China operation was one of the company’s fastest-growing revenue markets in the Asia-Pacific region, and that its advertiser base has grown nearly 400 per cent over the past two years.

“Now that the Twitter APAC team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave the company,” she tweeted. “I will take some time off to recharge, study about different cultures and then pursue more international business opportunities.”

In another tweet, she wrote, “I wish Twitter all the best as it is a fantastic platform for everyone to express themselves & to see what is happening in the world.”

Chen, who previously worked at Microsoft and Cisco Systems, was appointed to lead Twitter’s China operation in April 2016. Her main job was developing strategies to attract more Chinese businesses to advertise on the platform. This was seen as a profitable investment by the company, Twitter vice-president for international operations Shailesh Rao told the South China Morning Post at the time.