
Chinese are surely good at e-commerce. Not only giant e-commerce like JD and Tmall, the country is also home for social commerce sites. Even though the similar platform never seem to make it at western market. Xiaohongshu is one of the most successful social commerce platform in China.
Founded the company in 2013, Miranda Qu intended to use the platform as a travel recommendation platform. Users posted their shopping experiences abroad in the site. Others could read it and see if the products were worth to buy.
But soon she realized that not every users were those who were planning on taking a trip or shop abroad. Most of them were people who wanted to follow the newest trend. Or, planning on buying the items reviewed via online stores or through relatives living abroad.
The site then changed to an entirely new model. Xiaohongshu then built its own commerce platform. International brands can sell their product straight to the site’s users. Most of them are fashion and beauty products.
Not only Chinese celeb and influencers, Xiaohongshu has Kim Kardashian on its platform
Xiaohongshu started to get noticed when it produced following influencers in the platform. Not only that, celebrities such as Fan Bing Bing and Kim Kardashian also has their own accounts. Fan Bing Bing for example, once had the site crashed after she posted an endorsement note on her account.
The key is how Xiaohongshu appeals to its users. It does not have any advertisement nor encouraging users to buy certain products. The site is purely a social commerce where people review and recommend goods for others.
By 2019, the Chinese platform has more than 200 million registered users. It claimed that the number is growing by 300% per year. Most of the users are those who born after 1990s.
Xiaohongshu has had 4 funding rounds since 2014 with $417 M raised. China giant corp, Alibaba alone had invested $300 M in the company last year. With that, it is valued around $3 billion.
Recently, CNBC named the company as #10 2019 Disruptor 50. It is two ranks above India’s InMobi. A surprising rank for the company’s debut on the list.