There will be meetings but no tweetings. That was the message from Twitter execs on news that the firm’s chief executive had embarked on his first ever trip to China this week. Dick Costolo is scheduled to meet Shanghai government officials and talk to students at the city’s Fudan University. Twitter issued a statement that summed the trip up as tech-tourism: “Dick is visiting China because he wants to learn more about Chinese culture and the country’s thriving technology sector.”
Not on the agenda: trying to persuade officials to allow Twitter to operate in China, where it has been banned since 2009. Instead the messaging giant says it hopes to learn from the revenue models of mobile apps like Tencent’s WeChat.
Meanwhile, the Twitter-equivalent from China, Sina Weibo filed to launch an IPO in the US last Friday, seeking to raise $500 million. It hopes to see the company valued at $7 billion, implying each of its users is worth $54.22 to investors. The equivalent metric for Twitter is $120, reports the Financial Times.
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