How this Chinese founder is reimagining social commerce and outdoing Instagram and Pinterest for more than 220 million users

China’s “post-’95 generation”—as Miranda Qu, cofounder of the social commerce app Xiaohongshu, calls the country’s young consumers—are digitally native, educated, and open-minded. They’re also “a consumption force,” she says, and “they don’t want anything mass market.” On her Instagram-meets-Pinterest platform, now valued at $3 billion, influencers share their lifestyles and stories about the products they use (hard selling is discouraged). Today, more than 220 million users treat it as a product search engine. Qu has added the ability to buy products directly, allowing international brands to operate in China without a local banking relationship or warehouse. Last fall, U.S. makeup brand ColourPop launched on the platform, which does all the importing and product fulfilling for cross-border products. Qu recently let brands create their own pages and debuted a feature connecting influencers to marketers.