After a difficult couple of months Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has announced their intention to focus heavily on expansion in Asia and the Middle East, hoping to follow the success of Facebook in the region.

The company have appointed former head of public-private partnerships for Google Rishi Jaitly as new vice president of media for Asia Pacific and Middle East. In a statement, Twitter said that they aim to utilize partnerships with key Asian media companies to publicise the platform.

Whilst Facebook is currently blocked in China, Twitter hopes there will be no similar problems for them in the region; the state-owned Chinese publisher Xinhua is a big user of Twitter and publishes daily reviews of China’s news on the platform.

Over the last three months shares in Twitter have dropped dramatically, after problems with marketing and the departure of CEO Dick Costolo. Shares were trading at 52 pence per share in mid April, and at around 30 pence per share yesterday.