Little Red Book has launched “Red Marketing Academy”

Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book, also called RED) did something most platforms never bother with. It opened its own school to teach brands and marketers how to sell on it. The official site is here: https://xue.xiaohongshu.com/. If you sell to Chinese consumers, this matters more than it sounds, and I will explain why from the operator side.

Why RED opened a marketing academy

The official learning platform, the RED Marketing Academy, builds course content around brand categories, marketing goals, and RED’s own commercial products. The aim is simple. Help brands at different stages run better campaigns on RED, grow sales, and build a name. With this move, RED also steps into the China education market.

Here is the insider read. When a platform builds a certified course track, it wants to standardize how money gets spent on it. RED was tired of agencies and brands burning budgets on random KOL posts that went nowhere. The academy is RED telling the market: stop guessing, here is how the system actually works, and here is a certificate to prove you learned it. Marketers who pass can put it on their resume and find work faster.

RED in 2025 and 2026: the numbers that matter

The platform has grown a lot since this academy first launched. Here is where it stands now.

• Around 350 million monthly active users, up from 260 million at the end of 2022. Daily active users now pass 100 million.
• Women are about 70 percent of users, but men are the fast-growing group, rising from roughly 21 percent to near 28 percent.
• Roughly 85 percent of users are aged 19 to 35. First-tier and new first-tier cities make up about two thirds of the base.
• Ad revenue reached about 21.6 billion RMB in 2024, near 72 percent of total income, growing close to 48 percent year over year.
• About 70 percent of monthly users actively search on RED. That search habit is the reason brands treat it like a review engine, not just a feed.

For context on how big this audience is, China had 1.108 billion internet users at the end of 2024, with 974 million of them shopping online, according to the CNNIC 55th statistical report. RED sits inside that pool as the place where buying decisions get made before the cart, especially in beauty, fashion, and travel.

What the academy actually teaches

The course content starts from three marketing scenarios: product promotion, node marketing (think shopping festivals), and brand marketing. It covers beauty and personal care, luxury and jewelry, apparel, 3C and home appliances, and home goods. Each industry gets its own playbook so a skincare brand and a home appliance brand are not stuck with the same generic advice.

The platform also splits content by skill level, from beginner to expert, and runs courses on its own commercial tools: Spotlight, Professional Accounts, Dandelion (the official KOL matching tool), e-commerce marketing, and ad products. With the rise of paid promotion, simple blogger posts no longer cut it. Brands need a real method and the right tools to hit their goals. The academy is RED’s way of getting everyone on the same page and saying goodbye to wild, untracked promotion.

The “first lesson”: mastering Double 11

Double 11 (Singles’ Day) is the shopping festival brands cannot afford to miss. Winning it means building traffic before the sale, converting hard during it, and keeping customers after. The academy runs a Double 11 learning season with live courses across nine industries, walking brands through track trends, product promotion plays, and pre-sale deployment. The lesson under the lesson: on RED, you plant the seed (种草, zhongcao) weeks before the festival, not on the day.

The insider angle: why foreign brands get RED wrong

I have watched many overseas brands treat RED like Instagram. Post pretty photos, wait for sales. It does not work that way. RED is a search and review platform first. Chinese shoppers type a product name into RED to read real notes before they buy on Tmall or in store. If there are no notes, or only ads, trust drops and so do sales.

Local operators know three things foreigners miss. First, content needs to look native, written like a friend’s honest review, not a brochure. Second, mid and small creators (KOC, key opinion consumers) often beat big influencers on trust and cost. Third, you have to feed RED’s search. The right keywords in your notes decide whether a shopper finds you at the buying moment. This is closer to SEO than to social posting, which is why our team treats it like search work in China.

10 key facts about Little Red Book

1. Founding: RED was founded in 2013 as a platform for sharing overseas shopping tips.
2. User base: Around 350 million monthly active users, mostly young urban consumers.
3. Content format: Mostly user notes: reviews, recommendations, and real experiences.
4. E-commerce inside the app: Users can buy products directly without leaving RED.
5. Gateway for global brands: Shoppers use RED to discover and buy international products.
6. Community trust: Known for honest content and strict rules against false claims.
7. Influencer hub: A huge base of KOLs and KOCs makes it a top place for word-of-mouth marketing.
8. Brand collaborations: Many luxury and lifestyle brands run official accounts here.
9. Search-driven: About 70 percent of users search the app, so keyword strategy matters.
10. Always adding features: Live-streaming, group buys, and new ad tools keep rolling out.

How a foreign brand should start on RED

RED is one channel, not a full plan. It works best when it feeds the rest of your China setup: your store, your e-commerce operations, and your other social accounts. A simple order of work that we use:

• Open a verified brand account and write notes built around the keywords your buyers actually search.
• Seed with KOCs and mid creators first to build a base of honest reviews, then add a few larger KOLs.
• Use RED’s ad tools to push the notes that already perform, not cold content.
• Track which notes drive search and saves, then double down before each shopping festival.

If you want help setting this up, see our Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) agency service or contact us for a plain talk about budget and fit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the RED Marketing Academy and is it free?

The RED Marketing Academy is Xiaohongshu’s official learning platform that teaches brands and marketers how to promote on RED. It offers course tracks by industry, skill level, and ad product, plus certification. Most core courses are free to access at xue.xiaohongshu.com, with some paid or live-season content.

Can foreign brands sell on Xiaohongshu without a Chinese company?

Yes. RED runs a cross-border store program that lets overseas brands sell without a mainland China business license. You still need a verified account, the right documents, and notes written in Chinese. Many brands start cross-border to test demand, then set up a local entity once sales grow.

How much does Xiaohongshu marketing cost for a small brand?

It varies widely, but a small brand can begin with a few thousand US dollars per month covering content, KOC seeding, and light ad spend. KOCs often charge from tens to a few hundred dollars per note, while top KOLs run far higher. Start small, find the notes that work, then scale spend behind proof.

Is Xiaohongshu better than Douyin for foreign brands?

They do different jobs. RED is stronger for research, reviews, and high-trust categories like beauty and travel. Douyin is stronger for fast reach and live-stream selling. Most brands use both, with RED building trust and Douyin driving volume.

How do I rank my notes in Xiaohongshu search?

RED ranks notes on keyword match, engagement, saves, and account quality. Put your target keywords in the title, first lines, and tags, and write content people save and comment on. Steady posting and real reviews beat a single big push, much like search work on Google or Baidu. Statista’s RED platform data shows how central search behavior has become on the app.

For more on building trust through media and creators in China, see our work on PR and influencer marketing.

Jon Wang is a pragmatic, China-focused consultant with hands-on experience in Chinese e-commerce, distribution and digital marketing, always focused on practical solutions for smaller brands and tighter budgets. Connect with Jon on LinkedIn.