Twitter insists it's not closing Hong Kong office

SINGAPORE - Twitter will transition its advertiser sales support and media partnerships from Hong Kong to its regional headquarters in Singapore, but denied a claim that is closing its Hong Kong office.

The firm’s MD of Greater China, Kathy Chen, will continue to be based in Hong Kong.

“We are not closing our Hong Kong office,” a spokesperson told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “Greater China is an important part of our commitment and network across Asia-Pacific, which is one of our largest and fastest-growing regions in the world.”

The news comes just days after Twitter said it will be cutting its staff by 9 percent globally and announced plans to discontinue its Vine app.

"We're taking the necessary steps to ensure Twitter is well positioned for long-term growth," CEO Jack Dorsey said.

Twitter's monthly active users rose to 317 million in the September quarter, from 313 million the previous quarter—relatively stagnant when compared to Instagram and Snapchat.

According to the spokesperson, the company has a growing business of connecting Chinese advertisers to the global Twitter audience and has demonstrated early success in bringing more Chinese content for overseas users.

“We’re transitioning the support for our users, partners and advertisers in the Greater China market to our Asia-Pacific headquarters in order to increase our business discipline and streamline our operations for long-term success,” the spokesperson said.

Twitter opened its Hong Kong office in March 2015 to tap China’s outbound export sales and Hong Kong and Taiwan’s domestic users.