REDnote, known in China as Xiaohongshu (小红书), is today one of the leading digital platforms in the Chinese market. Originally created as a space for sharing experiences and reviews, it has progressively evolved into a central environment for discovery, interaction, and the shaping of purchase journeys.
With over 300 million monthly active users and tens of millions of creators, REDnote fuels a continuous stream of original content that transforms the relationship between brands and audiences: no longer one‑way communication, but dialogue and participation. It is within this dynamic of dialogue that REDnote builds its strength, becoming an ideal ecosystem to enhance trust among its audience, influence purchasing decisions, and foster long‑term relationships with its community.
Below, we explore the individual features that brands can leverage to interact and connect more deeply with Chinese consumers.
Catch up on the webinar dedicated to REDnote!
Together with Jake Li, Head of Global Agency Partners at Xiaohongshu.
The main features of the REDnote ecosystem
Entering REDnote means immersing yourself in a platform that does not follow the traditional logic of Western social media. Here, users do not simply scroll passively, but actively explore, search, interact, and contribute. The five core features of the ecosystem reflect precisely this nature:
Follow The following system allows users to create a highly personalized feed, populated by brands, friends, creators, and similar profiles. Every interaction feeds the algorithm, making discovery increasingly relevant. For brands, this represents an opportunity to build a base of genuinely interested followers, not just passive viewers.
Search The internal search engine is the true beating heart of the platform. Users look for inspiration, validation, and practical advice. Keywords go beyond brand names to include real experiences (“how to dress in Shanghai in winter,” “skincare for sensitive skin”), making every piece of content a potential starting point for a customer journey. Optimizing content for search is therefore strategic.
Explore This section suggests content based on interests, behavior, and current trends. For a brand, being visible in Explore means reaching audiences at their most open and inspired moment.
Nearby The Nearby function shows content published by users in close geographic proximity. A valuable tool for tourism, retail, and dining, it enables geolocated discovery and transforms content into concrete action.
AI Search 问一问 After performing a search, users can activate the AI function to further deepen the topic. Artificial intelligence transforms the query into a dialogue: instead of merely scrolling through results, users can ask specific questions and receive concise, relevant, and contextualized answers.
Explore Function
AI Search Function
Types of Accounts: Structuring Your Presence on REDnote
Personal Account
At the heart of REDnote are everyday users who spontaneously share their daily experiences. Among them emerge the KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers): users with a relatively small but highly loyal audience. KOCs represent the most authentic face of digital word‑of‑mouth, and brands that know how to engage them gain unparalleled returns in terms of trust and credibility.
Business Account
The business account is the official space where brands present themselves, tell their story, and communicate directly with users through ads, content, and institutional materials. It is a dedicated channel for promoting events, products, and experiences, enriched by collaborations with celebrities, KOLs, and KOCs to amplify the brand’s voice. Brands can also create sub‑accounts for physical stores or local resellers, enabling localized strategies that remain fully integrated. Corporate verification is mandatory to unlock these features, ensuring quality, transparency, and trust within the ecosystem.
KOL, KOC, KOP, and KOS Compared
KOL (Key Opinion Leader): Influencers with a large following, capable of amplifying messages and generating trends.
KOC (Key Opinion Consumer): Everyday consumers who, through authentic sharing of their experiences, significantly influence the purchasing decisions of other users.
KOP (Key Opinion Professional): Industry experts (e.g., dermatologists, chefs) who bring technical authority to the content.
KOS (Key Opinion Seller): Creators and sellers able to guide consumers all the way to purchase, often linked to shops or local stores. They combine sales expertise with storytelling ability.
KOB + KOS: A New Vision of Decentralized Marketing
In 2025, a new operating model takes shape on RedNote: KOB + KOS.
- KOB (Key Opinion Business) represents the institutional voice of the brand. It manages content, coordinates strategy, and works with KOS to ensure consistency, speed, and impact.
- KOS (Key Opinion Seller), on the other hand, makes the brand “human”: it tells the product’s story in everyday life, bringing it closer to the user’s real experience.
This synergy enables brands to overcome fragmented communication, maintaining a coherent narrative on a national scale while driving highly localized action. The result? An integrated network of content that builds trust and authority with your audience.
Customer Journey and Seeding Marketing: The Power of Discovery
On REDNote, the customer journey stands out for its inverted model, where content represents the first point of contact and inspiration arises spontaneously from posts, stories, or creator recommendations. In this context, seeding marketing becomes a strategic lever: through collaboration with KOLs, KOCs, KOPs, and KOSs, brands can spread authentic and credible experiences that foster trust and engagement, naturally integrating into community conversations.
Unlike traditional advertising, this practice is based on the sharing of reviews, tutorials, and real applications, generating a ripple effect that influences purchasing decisions in a genuine and non‑intrusive way. The KFS Formula (KOL, Feed, Search) encapsulates this approach, where inspirational content sparks desire and drives discovery, making REDNote an ideal ground for building reputation and strengthening brand awareness.
For companies, success depends on their ability to combine authenticity, transparency, and content quality, values particularly appreciated by Chinese consumers.
REDnote advertising formats
Advertising on REDnote offers brands a wide range of tools to effectively reach the Chinese audience. Thanks to its combination of authentic content and targeted advertising options, the platform has become a benchmark for companies seeking to increase their visibility.
REDnote provides non‑intrusive advertising formats, seamlessly integrated into the user experience to achieve specific marketing objectives.
Open Screen Ads: Full‑screen ads displayed when opening the app, ideal for immediately capturing user attention. Given their high visibility, they are perfect for launches and awareness campaigns.
In‑feed Ads: Sponsored content within the feed, similar to organic posts, integrated into the user’s content flow to ensure greater interaction.
Banner: Static or dynamic placements supporting long‑term campaigns.
Brand Zone: A space directly linked to the search function that allows brands to showcase their identity, products, or a specific campaign. The brand associates the Brand Zone with specific keywords so that, when users search, the Brand Zone appears as the top result.
Hashtag Page: Promotional pages tied to trending hashtags to attract an interested audience.
Brand Zone example
Hashtag page example
ADV strategies and softselling
To maximize return on advertising investments on REDnote, brands must act with a strategic vision. The priority is to create high‑quality content, aesthetically refined and relevant to the target audience. In particular, it is important to:
Optimize materials for REDnote’s internal search engine, using targeted keywords consistent with the brand identity.
Segment users based on interests, habits, and geographic area, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.
Monitor and analyze campaign data, identifying strengths and areas for improvement.
Adopt a soft‑selling approach, avoiding overly intrusive messages and favoring content that naturally integrates into the platform experience.
By combining different advertising formats and targeting techniques, brands can develop campaigns that not only highlight products but also strengthen relationships and build trust with consumers.
Catch up on the webinar dedicated to REDnote!
Together with Jake Li, Head of Global Agency Partners at Xiaohongshu.
Why REDnote Is Essential for Brands Today
In 2025, REDnote is not just a social platform. It is a window into contemporary Chinese culture, a mirror reflecting the desires, habits, and values of an entire generation of consumers. Here, marketing is not a one-way communication, but a constant dialogue where authenticity, closeness, and interaction make all the difference.
Those who can understand the platform’s dynamics, engage the right people, and create relevant content will not only gain visibility but also build trust, and with it, lasting success.