How a Chinese social media platform used WIPO’s Madrid System to scale globally
In 2013, a new Chinese social media platform emerged from Shanghai, China, with a simple yet powerful mission – to “Inspire Lives.” Owned by limited company Xingyin Information Technology, “rednote” – “Xiaohongshu” in Chinese – has redefined how millions of people discover, share, and shop. It’s grown into a vibrant community where moments are captured, experiences are exchanged, and connections are built around shared passions.
“Rednote” combines the power of social networking with e-commerce, enabling users to post photos, videos, and live streams that influence purchasing decisions and spark trends. “It’s more than just a social app”, say Xingyin Information Technology. “It’s a trusted lifestyle guide and a gateway to smart consumer choices”.
With monthly active users well into the millions, more people than ever are turning to “rednote”.
A lifestyle app with a safe and authentic community
Xingyin Information Technology describes “rednote” as a “Lifestyle and Interest Community” – a safe and welcoming space where people share honestly and interact in a friendly and respectful way. “It’s a meeting place where different generations can come together over shared lifestyle interests – and it’s a popular search destination for tips, ideas, and life experiences.”
Thanks to deep learning architecture used for large-scale personalization, and a decentralized content distribution method, the platform is designed to give users more control over what they see. And, by tapping into a huge library of genuine user reviews, it has become a unique “long-for” system that closely matches brands and merchants with relevant target audiences, creating a healthy e-commerce ecosystem.
Beyond the online world, Xingyin Information Technology supports public initiatives like “Rural Wandering”, helping promote rural tourism and breathe new life into less-developed regions.
Today, rednote’s monthly active users exceed 350 million, with more than 70% of them engaging through search. And the community’s reach is expanding further as international users from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds join. The brand’s influence and vitality continue to grow, marking its place as a global dynamic social-commerce platform.
Protecting the “rednote” brand during rapid international growth
In early 2025, a sudden surge of international users brought a highlight moment for rednote’s brand development. But it came with new challenges. International market visibility suddenly pushed global trademark protection to the top of Xingyin Information Technology’s agenda.
Needing a solution that could offer solid yet flexible trademark protection, the company quickly devised a comprehensive branding strategy grounded in WIPO’s Madrid System — an efficient and streamlined mechanism for protecting trademarks globally.
Why “rednote” chose the Madrid System for global trademark protection
Enabling market exploration and flexible business pivots
In their own words, “For many companies reaching out to global markets for the first time, the high cost of multi-country trademark registration can be a significant financial burden. The Madrid System offers a smart strategy: Advance with flexibility, retreat with security. Companies can start by using the Madrid System in just a few core target countries to test the waters. If business doesn't grow as expected, they can cut their losses without having over-committed resources. But, if things take off, they can quickly expand the scope of protection to other Madrid System members. The Madrid System became a powerful ally in our international expansion, ensuring we could make strategic corporate adjustments.”
Global trademark protection in 100+ countries with one application
With a single international trademark application filed through the Madrid System, the company was able to seek protection of the “rednote” trademark in more than 100 countries simultaneously.
“As a core intangible asset, trademarks play a crucial role in multinational operations, impacting both the visible aspects of brand identity and licensing, as well as the underlying considerations of tax planning and compliance. The Madrid System offers an exceptionally convenient channel for submitting a single application to WIPO that takes effect across all target markets. Its streamlined process helped us avoid complex paperwork, notarization, translation into different languages, and costly delays. It’s a great solution for companies like us that need to secure protection quickly in an extremely short time.”
Xingyin Information Technology
Priority rights: Securing time advantages for brand protection
Xingyin Information Technology could also make good use of the Madrid System to claim priority based on its national trademark registration, securing valuable time advantages.
“This really facilitated our brand protection efforts, helping us proceed strategically and calmly, amid sudden market growth. Being able to claim priority from our national mark allowed quick extension of protection to new countries when “rednote” quickly started to gain international popularity. This effectively prevented malicious preemptive registrations and infringement and provided valuable buffer time for strategic decision-making.”
Xingyin Information Technology
Reducing trademark costs with multi-country filing efficiency
The significant cost advantages of filing a single international trademark application – and in a single currency – to seek protection in multiple markets, compared to filing separate applications in each country, were a major bonus.
“The Madrid System is particularly advantageous when you need to protect a trademark in multiple countries and multiple classes of goods and services. For us, it effectively reduced the financial burden of global trademark protection while enabling us to cover more ground”.
Xingyin Information Technology
Centralized portfolio management across all markets
The Madrid System offers flexible management capabilities, from seeking protection in additional markets to managing and renewing registrations in all markets in one go.
“Thanks to the Madrid System, we will be able to expand the geographical scope of our international trademark registrations to include additional markets whenever we want to. It not only helps with rapid sometimes unexpected business shifts but importantly reduces the administrative workload related to monitoring trademarks and the costs associated with maintaining rights.”
Xingyin Information Technology
Rednote's global trademark portfolio
Today, seven “rednote”-related international trademark registrations are protected through WIPO’s Madrid System, including “rednote” and its Chinese-language equivalent, “Xiaohongshu”.
The “rednote” registration, filed in 2024, seeks protection in more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. With protection already granted in almost 70 countries – including all 17 members of the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) – “rednote” is well positioned to continue its global expansion initiatives.
“Moving forward, we will continue using WIPO’s Madrid System – committed to protecting creativity and humanistic values – to bring our dream of “Inspiring Lives” to communities across the world.”
Xingyin Information Technology
More about the Madrid System
The Madrid System is a convenient and cost-effective solution for registering trademarks across 130+ countries by filing one application in one language, and paying one set of fees in one currency.
