The management team of Twitter has never identified a similar goal. But Costolo's trip is bound to stoke speculation about the company's ambitions in the country. A spokesman for Twitter declined to disclose more details about Costolo's talks with Shanghai government officials, but said the CEO aims for a better understanding of Chinese culture and the prosperous Chinese science and technology realms. Twitter has denied the possibility of setting up a Chinese office in the near future, as they would then have to abide by Chinese laws. Even though the company has not officially entered China, however, Twitter can still earn money from the Chinese market. A large number of Chinese application developers, including Lenovo, now use Twitter’s mobile advertisement platform MoPub.