• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, January 3, 2017

Another day, another big executive departure at Twitter.

This time, it’s Kathy Chen, the social giant’s managing director in Greater China.

“I will take some time off to recharge, study about different cultures and then pursue more international business opportunities,” Chen tweeted over the weekend.

Despite being banned in mainland China, Twitter appointed Chen as managing director for the region just last April. She had previously served in executive roles at several U.S. tech titans, including Microsoft and Cisco.

The social giant has maintained an office in Hong Kong since mid-2015.

Of course, China is critical to the growth strategies of U.S. tech companies, and especially social networks like Facebook and Twitter. That fact makes Chen’s departure particularly painful.

This year, digital ad spending in China will account for 49.7% of all ad spending -- up from 14.8% just five years ago -- according to GroupM.

Some tech companies are having better luck than others in penetrating China’s “Great Firewall,” as is it is commonly known. Apple recently succeeded in launching its Apple Pay mobile payment system in China in partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

More broadly, Twitter is shedding talent faster than anyone can count. Just weeks ago, it lost its longtime chief technology officer, Adam Messinger. Josh McFarland, VP of product at Twitter, also left the company.

The departures came just weeks after Twitter’s COO Adam Bain gave notice -- and less than a month after the resignation of Adam Sharp, head of news, government and elections.

Despite its best efforts -- which included bringing back Dorsey as CEO last year -- Twitter continues to struggle. Recently, data emer ged showing that ad agencies are increasingly bypassing the platform in favor of other social networks, especially Instagram.

Research firm eMarketer recently released a forecast suggesting that Snapchat will overtake Twitter in domestic users before the end of the year. More broadly, Twitter has seen few successes since its IPO in 2013. Rather than right its ship, Dorsey has seen Twitter’s stock sink since his return last October.  

In October, Twitter said third-quarter revenue was up about 8% -- less than the 20% growth reported by the social giant a quarter earlier. It was far less than the 58% growth seen during the third quarter of 2015.

Worse, Twitter said it planned to reduce its global workforce by about 9% -- which amounts to roughly 300 employees -- and restructure the company accordingly.