Twitter CEO makes first China visit

Dick Costolo, the chief executive officer of Twitter, arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Monday to start a three-day visit.

While on his first trip to China, Costolo will visit local government officials, academics and college students in Shanghai.

He will also visit Fudan University on Wednesday, on a visit he has defined as personal.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has frequently visited China and has publicly expressed his company's goal of entering China.

Unlike at Facebook Inc, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a frequent visitor to China and has openly spoken of his desire to enter China, Twitter's senior management has played down the likelihood of seeking a license to do business there.

The management team of Twitter has never identified a similar goal. But Costolo's trip is bound to stoke speculation about the company's ambitions in the country. 

A spokesman for Twitter declined to disclose more details about Costolo's talks with Shanghai government officials, but said the CEO aims for a better understanding of Chinese culture and the prosperous Chinese science and technology realms.

Twitter has denied the possibility of setting up a Chinese office in the near future, as they would then have to abide by Chinese laws.

Even though the company has not officially entered China, however, Twitter can still earn money from the Chinese market. A large number of Chinese application developers, including Lenovo, now use Twitter’s mobile advertisement platform MoPub.