Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR) has a new managing director in its Hong Kong office. Even when the microblogging service is censored in mainland China, percentages of Chinese advertisers grew by 340 percent last year. It has also purchased non-exclusive rights to the life stream the NFL in the U.S.

Twitter DM
The microblogging service is censored in mainland China. Photo credit: The Next Web

Last year, the company lead by Jack Dorsey opened an office in Hong Kong, to attract Chinese advertisers who are interested in the 320 million monthly active users of the social network, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

Shailesh Rao, Twitter vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Emerging Markets said to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that the new executive in Hong Kong is Kathy Chen. Since last year, the company has registered a 340 percent growth in numbers of advertisers from different segments.

Brands interested in advertising products via Twitter include Lenovo, Huawei Technologies, the state-owned Xinhua news agency and the People’s Daily, said the SCMP. Rao also remarked that Twitter is interested in expanding the investment in the region and Ms. Kathy Chen will be in charge of developing strategies and running the business.

Twitter said that Kathy Chen has worked with tech giants like Microsoft and Cisco Systems. She will substitute Peter Greenberger, former director of emerging markets, who will now dedicate to global brands and agencies at Twitter in Asia and the Pacific.

“Asia-Pacific is the largest region in the world for us in terms of a total number of active users, and it is also the fastest-growing region in terms of active user growth. We view Greater China as a critical component [of the region].” Said Rao to the SCMP.

Even when Twitter is banned in China, the company wants to attract brands and state-owned companies in the region

The San Francisco-based company has also planned to impulse its investment in China by offering data analytics and the Fabric mobile platform for developing apps for customers. Currently, Twitter registers 1 billion unique visits monthly to sites with embedded tweets.

“With our data analytics, we can give Chinese companies insight into how their customers are thinking about their products and services, and use that insight to help them deliver tailored and more effective communication to reach their audiences,” Rao said.

Rao explained that even when the company “would love to” offer the Twitter service to Chinese users, it is not a viable option right now. In 2009, Twitter.com was blocked by the Chinese government. However, the company wants to focus on offering new options for brands in the same market and state-owned enterprises.

Twitter has purchased non-exclusive rights to stream NFL content in the U.S.

The social network has allied with the NFL after a $10 million deal, to live-stream 10 Thursday night NFL matches on the platform. Analyst suggests that it could be a great strategy, for attracting more engaged users than can generate ad sales in the long-term.

Twitter will be able to stream 15 ads for every game, each of them costing $550 thousand. When considering the 10 games, the social network will accumulate almost $82 million of additional revenue, said Lior Ronen from Amigobulls. At the same time, it will increase the interaction of its users.

Source: South China Morning Post