Social networking giant Twitter Inc. will be opening an office in Toronto, with the former head of CBC’s English services at the helm.
The San Francisco-based company made the announcement on Monday. It also named Kirstine Stewart, former head of English services at CBC, as the head of its Canadian operations.
https://twitter.com/kirstinestewart/status/328905026338709506
Stewart has already made the Twitter handle switch from @KStewartCBC to @kirstinestewart.
The new account for TwitterCanada had already tweeted once, on April 12. But official news of Twitter’s foray into Canada came when Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue, tweeted: “Excited to announce @kirstinestewart as new Managing Director & 1st hire of Twitter Canada. Bienvenue chez Twitter! Now hiring in Toronto.”
Excited to announce @KirstineStewart as new Managing Director & 1st hire of Twitter Canada. Bienvenue chez Twitter! Now hiring in Toronto
— adam bain (@adambain) April 29, 2013
Bain’s Twitter handle, @adambain, was trending in Toronto soon afterwards.
Adam Bain, @adambain is now trending in #Toronto http://t.co/aqsD7sgjX4
— Trendsmap Toronto (@TrendsToronto) April 29, 2013
This isn’t the first time Twitter has set up shop in a country besides the U.S. While the bulk of its operations is based in San Francisco, Twitter also has offices in Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, Ireland, Britain, Spain, India, France, and South Korea.
For many of those countries, Twitter’s openings seem to be focused on driving sales and boosting ad revenue. Twitter already has country directors in Brazil and Japan, countries whose residents are the second and third-biggest users of Twitter after the U.S.
In November 2012, Twitter hired Guilherme Ribenboim, former CEO of ClickOn, a group-buying site based in Brazil. Ribenboim also spent 12 years working at Yahoo! Latin America.
But Twitter’s first country manager outside of the U.S. was in Japan. In April 2011, Twitter hired James Kondo, who was previously a policy advisor and the director of global communications strategy in the Japanese prime minister’s office.
There’s no word yet as to when or where the new Twitter Canada office will be opening, but Twitter’s Web site currently has two other job postings on its site, listed as “account executive” and “account manager.”