Asia-Pacific Power List 2025: Yajuan Wang, RedNote

Yajuan Wang (Zhiheng)  

Chief marketing officer
RedNote (Xiaohongshu)
China
Member since 2023

In early 2025, Xiaohongshu, also known as Little Red Book, officially unveiled its English name, RedNote, amid a sudden surge of new users migrating from TikTok, often referred to as ‘TikTok refugees.’ The move essentially equated to a global coming-out party, a significant move in RedNote’s international expansion. But those familiar with Zhiheng and RedNote’s story will know the groundwork for success was laid a long time ago.

Launched in 2013, the app has undergone a remarkable transformation, from a user-generated content (UGC) shopping guide aimed primarily at female consumers to one of China’s most dynamic social media and influencer marketing platforms, in a decade’s time.

Since its launch of an in-app instant translation function earlier this year, the app has now further evolved into a popular 'lifestyle guide' across various markets. The phrase 'ask RedNote when in doubt' has become second nature for a generation of users, including Chinese users and many overseas users and influencers.

RedNote achieved a significant milestone in late 2024 by opening its first office outside Mainland China, selecting Hong Kong as its gateway to the world. Zhiheng and the team view Hong Kong as not only a familiar cultural touchpoint but also as a launchpad for RedNote’s cross-border commercial ambitions. 

Under the leadership of Zhiheng, RedNote also positioned itself as a supportive platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In the first half of 2024 alone, a wide range of vertical industries entered the platform and reported significant growth in operational metrics, which Zhiheng attributed to the platform’s traffic advantages, targeted audience reach, and innovative marketing solutions. 

At the ROI Festival last October, Zhiheng shared that the gross merchandise value (GMV) growth rate of the top 1,000 standard product units (SPUs) on the platform from January to June 2024 consistently outpaced the market average. This trend of ‘counter-cyclical growth’ is closely tied to a strategic shift in marketing approaches, driven by the ‘product discovery’ philosophy introduced by Zhiheng’s team. Central to this approach is an ‘audience-centric’ mindset, which posits that new business opportunities stem from the personalised needs of real consumers. In this framework, products and services are viewed as tailored solutions designed to solve specific problems and fulfil those evolving consumer demands.

Zhiheng continues to spearhead the commercialisation efforts at RedNote. In May 2025, the platform announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall to launch ‘Red Cat,’ a new initiative aimed at seamlessly integrating content and commerce. The collaboration enables merchants to embed product links directly into RedNote’s social posts, marking the first full-scale integration of the app’s signature influencer-driven content seeding strategy with Taobao and Tmall’s powerful e-commerce infrastructure. 

Beyond her role at RedNote, Zhiheng remains an active voice in the broader industry, participating in various events such as the 2024 Global Marketing Summit hosted by the Business School of Renmin University of China. Before joining Red in 2020 as CMO and leading its commercialisation business, Zhiheng served as senior vice president and head of commercial advertising at Sina Weibo.