Twitter has hired a new head for its China business despite being banned on the mainland since 2009, as it looks to court Chinese businesses to advertise on the microblogging service amid stalling user growth.
In a tweet, Twitter's chief executive named Kathy Chen as the new managing director for China.
Twitter has been banned on the mainland since 2009 but the company opened an office in Hong Kong last year in a bid to get Chinese companies to advertise via their service.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Twitter vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Emerging Markets Shailesh Rao, said the social media site had seen 340 percent growth in the number of Chinese advertisers using Twitter in the past year.
"Because of the success we've seen, we want to expand the investment we're making in (the region)," Rao said.
"Kathy Chen will be responsible for developing the strategy and running the business."
Chen also began tweeting and said that Twitter is the best way to "share Chinese content in real-time".
Twitter's latest hiring comes as the company faces stalling user growth. Total average monthly active users stood at 320 million in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, the same as the previous quarter. Twitter's share price is down over 24 percent year-to-date and the company is looking for new avenues of growth.