Twitter Asia chief Shailesh Rao resigns

Shailesh Rao, who spearheaded micro-blogging site Twitter’s expansion into newer markets such as India, has quit the firm after nearly four-and-a-half years as its vice-president for Asia Pacific, Americas and emerging markets.

Twitter has over 26 million users in India with the service emerging as the second largest social network in the country after Facebook. It has become a medium for celebrities and politicians to reach out to the common people.

Announcing his departure on Twitter, Rao said it was “time for new challenges”, while not divulging his future plans. “Couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve built across Asia, Latin America and Emerging Mkts — leaving the business in great hands,” Rao tweeted.

Rao had joined the company after spending 10 years at internet search giant Google, where he served as director of local search, managing director of India business and finally as vice- president of the company’s Asia Pacific business. He joined Twitter just before the company went public in the US.

As Google’s managing director, Rao executed the search engine giant’s mobile push in India as well as getting more number of small vendors to list on its advertising platform by reaching out to them through offline channels.