Mia.com growing from moms' dreams to a masculine firm

She once teased a male executive of mia.com's competitor: "Everybody is discussing diapers as if you (men) really understand diapers, as if you had touched one before."

However, she is aware understanding mothers' needs for baby products alone cannot support sustainable development of a rapidly growing company.

"We need to transform ourselves from a company that is based on the dreams of a group of moms into a masculine firm that is able to bleed, fight and invade," she said.

According to mia.com, its sales surged to 2.5 billion yuan in 2015, up seven-fold over 2014. Liu foresees this year's sales around 6 billion yuan.

"The rapid development of the company raises the bar for management. When you think out of the startup box, you find that you need people with more experience and vision," she said, adding one of the major tasks for her last year was finding the right people.

At the beginning of 2015, about 80 percent of mia.com's senior executive team were female. But by November, about 60 percent of the team were male.

It is believed any "baby boom" would help mia.com to grow further.

According to the Beijing-based Internet consultancy Analysys International, the market for baby and mom products in China was valued at 2 trillion yuan in 2015. "The size is expected to reach 3 trillion yuan in 2018," said Liu Xuwei, an analyst with Analysys International.

Agreed Liu of mia.com. "There is still a lot of potential for growth in the market for baby and mom products. It is high time we expand to offline channels as well, as more than 50 percent of sales are generated by brick-and-mortar stores."

Late last month, Liu announced mia.com's partnerships with AMCARE Corporation, a leading private women and children's hospital chain in China, and Yuyuto Shanghai Entertainment Facilities Co Ltd, which runs more than 200 indoor theme parks for children, respectively.

With these two partnerships, mia.com can reach more parents and would-be parents, to give them more opportunities to first experience quality foreign products before buying them online. In early 2015, mia.com had set up a joint venture with RYB Education Institution, which runs dozens of kindergartens in China.

"Baby and mom products constitute a so-called connecter industry. Higher up is the medical industry that takes care of the birth of babies. Lower down is the education industry," said Liu.

Her dream is to make mia.com the first go-to firm for pregnant Chinese women and even those considering motherhood. "I want them to know there is a company called mia.com that can fulfil their needs."

Not just as online consumers, women, such as Liu, are driving e-commerce in China. "Women in the Era of Internet Plus", a 2015 report by AliResearch, which is backed by Alibaba Group, showed that women were running more than half of the shops on Taobao.com and Tmall.com, two of the leading e-commerce websites in China. Women-owned shops accounted for more than 46 percent of online transactions in 2014.

"As China shifts from manufacturing to services, women who are blessed with a strong acumen to deal with the outside world, will become increasingly important participants in China's economy," said Shi Dongwei, vice-president of Alibaba.