By Callum Keown

AppLovin stock jumped more than 6% ahead of the open Friday as investors got excited about the company's plans to launch a social networking platform.

A job posting on its website revealed the mobile ad tech company is hiring a software engineer to design and build the "digital backbone of our next-generation social platform." It comes after AppLovin made an unsuccessful bid for TikTok's assets outside of China, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal last year.

"At AppLovin, we're pioneering the future of social connectivity by building a next-generation platform that redefines how people create, share and engage with content," the company said in its job posting.

The company's Chief Product and Engineering Officer Giovanni Ge confirmed the plans in a Chinese-language podcast, Bloomberg reported Thursday. AppLovin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shares climbed 6.5% to $438.50 in premarket trading Friday.

It's been a tough start to 2026 for AppLovin. A financial publisher published a report in January claiming the company served as a "laundering machine" for transnational crime syndicates in Southeast Asia. Capitalwatch subsequently retracted all its claims earlier this month.

AppLovin sent a cease-and-desist letter and said the claims were "absurd and demonstrably false."

The stock has risen 12% since Feb. 13 but it's still down 39% this year through Thursday's close. Maybe excitement around a social platform can turn the stock's fortunes around in 2026.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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February 20, 2026 06:11 ET (11:11 GMT)

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