Dorsey said that Twitter is working on rolling out a version of its service for all languages, but translation remains a big issue for the company. For instance, the Web may support the Unicode character set, which can include Chinese characters, but most cell phone SMS (short message services) does not support Unicode.

Dorsey said he also isn't sure how to get the service inside China's firewall, though conceded that translation would be the problem that needs to be solved first.

If Twitter were to try to offer such a service, it may also face pressure from the Chinese government to filter and censor politically-inflammatory material, one audience member pointed out.

Nonetheless, Ai stressed the importance that Twitter could have by establishing a Chinese service. He had noted that he the service eight hours a day, after his blog was taken down by the Chinese government.

Ai is a Chinese artist who has had exhibits around the world, as well as served as a design consultant for the 2008 Beijing Olympics "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. He has also increasingly run into trouble with the Chinese government as well.