Twitter to build APAC engineering hub in Singapore

Twitter has selected "high-growth" Asia-Pacific to house a new engineering centre, as it looks to tap into the talent and growth opportunities in the region.

The engineering centre will be one of the biggest outside the US and will be based in the company’s APAC headquarters in Singapore. It will allow the social media platform to operate a global engineering team in two time zones.

The US platform has committed to hiring 65 technical talent in Singapore to establish the centre, covering product engineering, software engineering, data engineering and data science. 

Michael Montano, the global head of engineering at Twitter, described the investment as a "pivotal moment" for Twitter, "as we focus on accelerating development and continuing to serve the global public conversation."

Twitter already has an international data science team based out of Singapore, which was the company's first outside its home market when it was established in 2016.

In an interview with Campaign last year, Twitter's global head of client solutions Sarah Personette described APAC as a “huge growth engine” for Twitter, and unveiled plans to uncover additional revenue streams in the region.

"If we look at the fact that the majority of the millennial population will sit in high-growth urban markets—many of which are in APAC—coupled with internet connectivity trends, then the region represents a growing opportunity," she said at the time.

Twitter APAC vice president Maya Hari said the investment in a new engineering centre "demonstrates our commitment to this important region".

Twitter broached the US$1 billion in quarterly revenue mark for the first time in Q4 2019. For 2019 overall, Twitter’s revenue was $3.46 billion, up 14% compared with 2018.