Twitter has announced that it is adding support to Asian languages versions, including Hindi, Malay, Filipino, and traditional and simplified Chinese.
Twitter has been banned in mainland China since 2009. But The New York Times reports that, despite the ban, Twitter might use the new service to “capture the hearts and minds of Chinese-language users.” It adds that China already has a microblogging service in Sina Weibo, which claimed in March that it had surpassed 100 million users. Twitter, similarly, has recently celebrated reaching 100 million "active users," with a further 26 million users likely to join by January, according to the Guardian. Twitter intends to launch its new language services in the coming weeks, raising the total number of supported languages on Twitter to 17.
The latest announcements come as Twitter CEO Dick Costolo declared imminent plans to expand the company’s advertising efforts, as reported in Adweek last week. Speaking at what he called a "state of the union," Costolo told journalists that the company is entirely focused on advertising as its business model.
