Twitter, Which Helped Spread Word Of Umbrella Revolution, Opens Hong Kong Office In Greater China Push

There were 2.3 million tweets during last year’s Hong Kong protests, under the hashtags #occupycentral and #UmbrellaRevolution, according to Twitter. And now, the popular microblogging service provider has opened an office in Hong Kong for closer ties with businesses in Greater China, according to a news release on Tuesday. The move comes less than a week after Twitter opened an office in Indonesia.

Twitter joins Google and Facebook, both of which already have offices in Hong Kong, as the company pushes to boost international revenue. The United States accounted for about two-thirds of Twitter's $1.4 billion in 2014 sales, while 77 percent of its users are outside America.

International revenue, however, rose 149 percent in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, when the company reported earnings at double the street's projection.

"We're capitalizing on this growing trend where the most ambitious, entrepreneurial and successful Chinese companies want to go global, and we believe that Twitter is an essential way for them to connect and engage with the world," Shailesh Rao, Twitter's vice president for Asia-Pacific, Americas and emerging markets, said in the news release.

"Opening our Hong Kong office now and hiring a sales team to work directly with advertisers across the Greater China market will contribute to our next phase of growth in Asia," he said.

Twitter currently has job postings on its website for the positions of account executive, to help the company build sales with Fortune 500 companies that operate in the region, and media partnership manager, the go-to person for high-profile Twitter users in the region.