Published : 2025-01-17
Due to the TikTok ban, a large number of U.S. users are flocking to another app from China, Xiaohongshu (小紅書), also know as RedNote.
These self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" helped Xiaohongshu gain over 700,000 new users in just two days.
How was Xiaohongshu founded? Who is the founder and CEO of this Chinese app? Let us take a look at its story.
Xiaohongshu, one of the most well-known social networking and e-commerce platforms in China, was once called the "Chinese version of Instagram".
Since its launch in 2013, Xiaohongshu's average monthly active users have reached 300 million. After several rounds of financing, its valuation has reached nearly USD 20 billion.
It was founded by Qu Fang (瞿芳), or Miranda Qu, and Mao Wenchao (毛文超), or Charlwin Mao.
Looking back at the process of starting his business, Mao Wenchao, who is an avid traveller, says, "The passion for starting my own business comes from my hobby."
He also felt that his business dream emerged as early as in the university. "Innovation, adventure, entrepreneurship, all these things are really very close to you."

Xiaohongshu|Mao Wenchao resigned to start his own business
Xiaohongshu is one of the most popular apps in Mainland China in recent years, featuring both e-commerce and social networking functions.
Users can publish posts to recommend products and also share their lives and experiences here. The content covers various fields, including fashion, skincare, makeup, food, travel, entertainment, reading, fitness, and so on.
When it comes to the story of the founder Mao Wenchao, he is known as a "Mr. Perfect". He was a top student with an excellent academic background, and secured a high-paying, prestigious job after starting his career. But how did he eventually embark on the path of starting his own business?
Mao was born in Hubei Province of China and maintained excellent grades from primary school. In 2003, he participated in the college entrance examination and was subsequently admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大學).
Mao Wenchao majored in Mechatronics in the university, and by 2007, when he was about to graduate, he had already received job offers from two companies.
He later chose one of them, the Bain & Company, one of the world's top three management consulting firms.
Despite being invincible in the workplace, Mao Wenchao's greatest passion was traveling. Within a few short years after graduation, he had visited more than 20 countries.
During this process, Mao noticed that more and more Chinese people were traveling abroad, and Chinese tourists eager to shop could be seen everywhere.
In 2012, when his parents travelled to the U.S., he specifically searched the web for shopping guides for them. But he found that although there were many travel guides, there were almost no guides for overseas shopping.
In contrast, the total amount of overseas shopping by Chinese people had already reached USD 100 billion in 2012.

Since then, Mao Wenchao seized the trend of Chinese people shopping overseas and met the shopping needs of the middle class. Willingly paying compensation of RMB 1 million and resign, he founded Xiaohongshu in June 2013 in Shanghai and then turned it into an platform for sharing and providing outbound shopping guides, which was quite innovative in China at that time.
What surprised Mao the most was that users not only shared their overseas shopping experiences on Xiaohongshu but also actively wrote guides and spontaneously discussed them.
This phenomenon strengthened Mao Wenchao's belief in the model of user-generated content, with which the daily work of operational editors was only to decide whether to "feature" the post (list as a featured post) or occasionally guide users to improve the quality of images or format.
Xiaohongshu|Maowenchao's business dream started in college
Behind the success, Maowenchao's dream of starting his own business did not come on a whim. It began to sprout when he was in college. During his studies, he participated in exchange programmes with overseas universities and university entrepreneurship competitions.
In addition, while working at a private equity firm, Mao was sent to Stanford University to study for an MBA. "When you see those high-tech entrepreneurs from TV and books right in front of you, you will feel that starting a business is as common as going to work in the morning."
He also mentioned that among his peers, there were often well-known figures in the industry. For instance, one of the undergraduate students sitting in on lectures turned out to be Evan Spiegel, one of the founders of Snapchat; and his classmate's boyfriend was Kevin Systrom who had just left Google and then founded Instagram.

It is also worth mentioning that one of Xiaohongshu's important moments was then Premier Li Keqiang's visit in early 2015. At that time, Xiaohongshu had just transformed into an e-commerce platform, with sales reaching RMB 700 million in just six months.
Years have passed, Xiaohongshu has optimised its algorithms and adjusted its strategies to become not only China's leading social app, but one that is attracting attention from all over the world.
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