Charlwin Mao

There’s a new social media platform in China. Xiaohongshu, or “Little Red Book” in English, is transforming shopping and travel for China’s Gen Z. Brands and influencers are flocking to a platform that mixes Instagram’s photos, Tripadvisor’s travel advice, X’s memes, and Amazon’s marketplace. Xiaohongshu has 300 million users–mostly young, mostly urban, and mostly female. The app’s reach is now global, too, and has active users in places like Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Charlwin Mao, Xiaohongshu’s CEO, founded the platform in 2013, bonding with fellow Wuhan native Miranda Qu to start the company as a humble collection of PDF shopping guides.