Miranda Qu is the founder of Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book” in Chinese), a social e-commerce app for beauty, fashion, lifestyle and travel, which has become one of the world’s largest lifestyle platforms. She is leading Xiaohongshu's tremendous growth with keen market observations and understanding of its users. The company completed a funding round of over $300 million led by Alibaba in 2018, and its valuation reached over $3 billion.
The Shanghai-based company is often described as a cross between Pinterest and Instagram, initially created as a US shopping guide for Chinese customers. At first glance, its scrollable, tiled interface and influencer-filled community may justify comparisons, but Qu’s user-first mentality elevated Xiaohongshu beyond a mere aggregation of its predecessors’ functions into a highly engaged e-commerce ecosystem. Luxury brands have noticed, resulting in partnerships with the likes of Tiffany & Co, Christian Dior and L’Oréal.
In May 2019, Qu was listed among the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. In February 2018, she was named one of the 25 Rising Businesswomen of 2018 by Forbes China.
