Twitter lost the head of its greater China operations Kathy Chen, who resigned just eight months after taking up the position.

Chen, who previously worked at Microsoft and Cisco, was hired to attract more Chinese advertisers to Twitter, Reuters reported.

She wrote in a tweet the social networking company expanded its greater China advertising base by 400 per cent over the past two years and “now that the Twitter APAC team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave”. She said greater China is one of Twitter’s fastest growing revenue markets in Asia Pacific.

Twitter was blocked in China in 2009, but users in the country can access it via virtual private networks. Weibo is the most popular microblogging platform in China.

Chen’s exit is the latest in a series of executive departures from the social media platform. Two weeks Twitter announced CTO Adam Messinger and VP of product Josh McFarland were leaving the company.

The exit of Messinger and McFarland follow the loss of COO Adam Bain, who left the company in November. He was replaced by CFO Anthony Noto who now performs both roles. Earlier in December Adam Sharp, Twitter’s head of news, government and elections, also announced he was leaving.

The departures follow a year of job cuts at the company, with reports in October staffing levels were to be reduced by 9 per cent.