Why Twitter’s chief executive is really visiting China
Twitter’s chief executive Dick Costolo has headed off to China today on a trip to “learn more about Chinese culture and the country's thriving technology sector”, according to a Twitter spokesperson.
While that sounds lovely and we hope Costolo has a great time, Twitter has some rather more pressing issues in China that the chief executive should probably be tackling:
1. Amassing followers
Since 2009 Twitter has been blocked by Chinese censors barring it from massive growth in the highly connected Chinese market. China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator, boasts 740m mobile subscribers (China’s total population sits around 1.3bn) and none of them can currently access Twitter.
If Twitter were to break into the Chinese market it could help the social network sidestep critics who say that its user base has peaked in its existing markets. But as of yet neither Twitter, Facebook or Google have managed to successfully crack the Chinese market.
2. Tackling competitors
With Twitter absent in China, rival service Weibo has taken hold in the country with over 280m users of its Twitter-like service (Twitter boasts just over 240m monthly active users worldwide in comparison).
Weibo is now taking the fight to Twitter with its filing on Friday indicating it hopes to raise $500m (£300m) from the US market as part of an initial public offering that analysts expect will value the company at around $5.1bn.
Without a presence in China Twitter has been blocked from meaningful growth and it has allowed a competitor to gain a stronghold over the country. Hopefully Costolo has these two issues in mind while he’s enjoying the Chinese culture.