How a 29‑Year‑Old CTO Scales Teams and Leverages AI & Big Data in Car E‑Commerce

Qiu Hui entered Peking University’s computer science program at 15, later joined Tencent Research Institute where she helped launch QQ Video, QQ Pinyin, and WeChat video chat, becoming one of the youngest managers to earn the company’s “S‑level” honor. She now serves as CTO of the billion‑dollar valued Uxin Group, leading a technology team of over 600 engineers.

Beyond Technology: Finding Battle‑Ready Teammates

She attributes her success to systematic learning at Tencent and to building teams based not only on technical expertise but also on shared values and career development goals, selecting candidates she considers “battle‑field comrades.”

Leading Teams to Victory

Qiu emphasizes weekly training sessions, one‑on‑one mentorship, and proactive communication to nurture independent engineers, while maintaining a strict “survival of the fittest” policy that includes monthly performance reviews and eliminations to keep the team’s overall level high.

AI Is More Than a Hype; Data and Scenarios Matter

She argues that many AI companies are merely façades; true artificial intelligence must be grounded in real data and concrete scenarios. Since 2015, her team has built an AI division that introduced AI to the second‑hand car e‑commerce sector, creating an industry‑leading “intelligent pricing system.” Leveraging Uxin’s massive data, the system uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to model residual value curves for each vehicle model, delivering real‑time, accurate price estimates.

Additional AI‑driven innovations include a 98% accurate vehicle image‑recognition system that identifies car models, body parts, and even minor scratches from a few photos, a personalized recommendation engine achieving “one‑size‑one‑view” results, and a pioneering 400‑line dynamic phone‑routing technology that reduced average call‑to‑vehicle‑location time from 19 seconds to under one second.

Qiu stresses that technology is the most critical barrier for enterprises; without strong technical foundations, companies risk rapid decline despite short‑term business metrics.

Author: Qiu Hui Source: Nanji Circle