July 18th, 2026 shadmin
Launching a website aimed at users in mainland China is a fundamentally different exercise than launching one for a global or Western audience. Many foreign companies apply their standard playbook and end up with a site that’s slow, invisible, or even inaccessible to the audience they’re trying to reach. Here are the most common mistakes — and how to avoid them.
1. Hosting Outside Mainland China (Without a CDN Workaround)
The single biggest factor in site performance for Chinese users is server location. Hosting on a U.S. or European server means every request has to cross international gateways, which are often congested and subject to inspection delays. The result is slow load times, timeouts, and higher bounce rates.
Fix: Host on a mainland China server (with proper ICP licensing) or use a China-based CDN to cache and serve content closer to your users. If this is not possible, host your website in Hong Kong.
2. Not Understanding the ICP License Requirement
Any website hosted on servers physically located in mainland China is legally required to have an ICP (Internet Content Provider) filing or license. Skipping this isn’t just a compliance risk — unlicensed sites hosted in China can be taken offline entirely.
Fix: Either obtain an ICP filing through a licensed local partner, or host outside mainland China (e.g., Hong Kong) and accept a small performance tradeoff.
3. Assuming Google Tools Will Work
Google Analytics, Google Fonts, Google Maps, YouTube embeds, and Google-hosted JavaScript libraries are blocked or unreliable in China. If your site depends on these, large chunks of it may fail to load — or load so slowly that the whole page stalls.
Fix: Use locally accessible alternatives (Baidu Analytics, self-hosted fonts, Tencent Maps) or self-host key resources instead of pulling them from blocked domains.
4. Treating Translation as Localization
A word-for-word Chinese translation of an English site often feels foreign to local users. Layout conventions, color meanings, trust signals, and even preferred content density differ between Western and Chinese audiences.
Fix: Invest in proper localization — not just translation — including design, imagery, and tone that resonate with local users.
5. Ignoring Baidu SEO
Optimizing only for Google SEO means missing the search engine that actually matters in China. Baidu has different ranking factors, including a strong preference for ICP-licensed, mainland-hosted sites and simplified Chinese content.
Fix: Build a separate SEO strategy for Baidu, including meta tags, site structure, and hosting choices tailored to its crawler and ranking system.
6. Missing Local Payment and Social Integrations
If you’re selling anything, offering only Visa/Mastercard or PayPal will exclude a huge share of Chinese consumers, who overwhelmingly use Alipay and WeChat Pay. Similarly, a site with no WeChat presence misses one of the most important trust and discovery channels in the market.
Fix: Integrate local payment gateways and consider a WeChat Official Account or mini-program alongside your website.
7. Not Testing Real-World Accessibility
Many companies launch a China-facing site without ever checking how it actually performs from within mainland China — relying instead on how it looks from their home office.
Fix: Use in-country testing tools to check load times, blocked resources, and overall accessibility before and after launch.
Getting a China-facing website right means rethinking hosting, compliance, SEO, and localization together — not treating China as an afterthought bolted onto an existing global site. Getting these fundamentals right from day one will save significant time, cost, and frustration down the road.
Posted in China Hosting | Comments Off on Common Mistakes Foreign Companies Make When Launching a China-Facing Website
September 21st, 2019 shadmin
In response to the increasing delays of our existing ICP license application process, and the growing backlog of existing applicants, we have been working on finding new ways to speed up this process and have our clients website obtain this license in a shorter period. We are happy to announce today the launch of a streamlined application process in partnership with a new datacenter provider in Shanghai, through which licenses can be approved in as few as 10-15 days after receipt of valid documents.
Going forward, ICP license application would follow the process below:
1) Clients receive the link to download the ICP license application package once they place the order through our website.
2) Read the procedures and prepare all required documents.
3) After filling the forms, they will send the scanned files back to our ICP department for confirmation.
4) Within 24h we will confirm whether everything is done properly, after which the original documents can be sent to the provided address.
The contact person, who must be a Chinese national, will need to come to our datacenter provider address to take a photo as per the requirements. Other alternatives are explained in the ICP application package.
Unfortunately, in order to move forward with the new system, we will not be able to process any outstanding application. Please resubmit a new application if you have not yet obtained an ICP license so that we can start to work on it immediately.
Existing clients who have further questions are welcome to open a ticket to our ICP department through our portal.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
Posted in China Hosting, Service Update | Comments Off on New ICP License Application Process
November 22nd, 2016 shadmin
Some new changes have been introduced by the relevant authorities in regard to the ICP license application and requirements. More specifically:
1) During the application, the website must be offline (403 or 404 status)
2) Previously, it was possible to run the website on a Hong Kong or oversea server while the license was being processed. That is not allowed any more.
3) Successful applicants must display and maintain their ICP license in the footer of their website homepage with a link to the relevant government website. This was always the rule but enforcement was lax. Now it is a hard requirement and not doing so can result in the cancellation of the ICP license.
4) It is not allowed to park or forward domains without ICP license towards websites that have valid ICP licenses. To do so, the parked or forwarded domain must also have an ICP license.
You can learn more about these new rules and more details about the ICP license application procedure and requirements at www.sinohosting.net/icp.php
Posted in China Hosting | Comments Off on Changes to the ICP license procedures – November 2016
August 26th, 2016 shadmin
Due to the recent change of format of the business licenses in China (the merging of the three types of licenses in a single one), clients with websites hosted in mainland China are required to submit their new license to ensure their information is up-to-date with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which overseas the ICP license system. We have received a notification from our datacenter to submit each client documents as soon as possible, and clients who do not provide such documents in due time will see their website suspended.
As such, all SinoHosting clients are kindly requested to submit the following documents as soon as possible:
1. New company license (三è¯åˆä¸€)
2. Legal Person identity document (Chinese ID card/Oversea passport)
3. Contact person ID card (must be Chinese national), two sides required
4. 责任书 (scanned copy, we will send you the document to sign)
5. æ ¸éªŒå• (scanned copy, we will send you the document to sign)
6. Your ICP registration password
Our local staff will open shortly a support ticket to all clients hosted in China to arrange the sending of the documents. If you are a SinoHosting client and do not hear back from us by September 1st, 2016, please open a support ticket to us or send an email directly to icp@sinohosting.net
We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
Posted in China Hosting | Comments Off on ICP License Modification Notification for all existing clients hosted in China
August 14th, 2014 shadmin
This is a complete misconception about the ICP license.
First, the ICP license applies only to websites that are hosted on a mainland China server. Foreign hosted websites cannot apply for an ICP license.
Second, only foreign hosted websites are blocked by the great firewall. The great firewall applies only to international connections from/to China and as such has no effect on locally hosted websites. If your site is hosted within China and happens to break the law, the government will instruct the datacenter to take down your website (or the whole server), there is no need for them to block the site. The whole point of the great firewall is to prevent access to websites hosted on servers on which the Chinese government has no control (servers physically located overseas).
Posted in China Hosting | Comments Off on Does the ICP license guarantee your site not to be blocked in China?
January 16th, 2012 shadmin
We are currently able to assist in the registration of .cn domain names without an ICP license. The domain can be used with our international hosting packages (US, UK, Singapore or Hong Kong). The .cn is still however still restricted to Chinese companies. The application takes seven days and the following documents must be provided (scans of the originals):
-Enterprise license code certificate (mainland China-registered company)
-ID card (must be Chinese national)
Should you have any question on this, please contact our sales department at sales at sinohosting.net
The Management
www.sinohosting.net
Posted in Domain Names | Comments Off on Dot cn domain registration now possible without an ICP license
June 30th, 2011 shadmin
In the recent weeks, the local offices of the ministry of industry and information technology, in charge of ICP licenses, have been auditing websites with ICP licenses and delisting those with invalid certificates (business license, ID card etc.) or inaccurate contents (site content not matching the original declaration on the ICP application). Sites which have been moved to a provider different of the one through which the ICP license was originally applied for are also being delisted.
After de-listing it means the site does not have an ICP license and is not legally authorized to be hosted on a mainland China server.
In case you receive a SMS or email from the ministry of industry and information technology in regard of your ICP license being delisted, please contact us directly. For clients who had the license through a third party but are now hosted with us, they will need to apply for a new license (www.sinohosting.net/icp.php). We will waive 50% of the usual RMB800 one-time application fee. In the meanwhile, your site will be migrated to our Hong Kong server and hosted there until a new ICP license is obtained.
Clients can also choose to move permanently to Hong Kong if they decide not to start the ICP license, this way there is no additional fees if the site will be moved to an equivalent package on the Hong Kong server (for instance from basic-china to basic-hong kong)
Posted in China Hosting | Comments Off on Verification and delisting of ICP licenses
March 18th, 2011 shadmin
Starting on March 21st we will be charging a service fee for new clients looking to host in China who will need to apply for an ICP license through us. This is due to the increased complexity, work and time now needed to apply for an ICP license.
The service fee is set to RMB800, payable at the beginning of the application. In case of unsuccessful application after 6 months, we can refund 50% or RMB400. The remaining RMB400 is non-refundable.
Clients who already have an ICP license will not be charged that fee and will therefore only pay the normal hosting and, when applicable, the domain registration fee.
Before placing the order or applying please make sure that you meet the requirements and can provide all documents as listed on our ICP web page.
Posted in Service Update | Comments Off on New service fee for ICP registration
March 2nd, 2011 shadmin
We have written a short guide to assist our clients looking to host in China and apply for an ICP license. Please check it at:
www.sinohosting.net/icp.php
The Management
SinoHosting.net
Posted in Web Hosting | Comments Off on ICP license application procedure
June 30th, 2010 shadmin
From June 19th to July 19th, the ministry of industry and information technology will proceed to an upgrade to its ICP license system. During the upgrade, new ICP applications will not be accepted, and from June 5th, changes to existing ICP licenses will not be processed.
The new system make application for an ICP license even more complex. New changes include, among others:
1-On top of the national ICP system, which is managed by the ministry of industry and information technology, a provincial communication administration and server provider ICP systems have been introduced. There are now therefore three levels of approvals, with the applicant entering details through the server provider ICP system, which then will forward to the provincial communication administration, and finally to the national ICP system under the ministry of industry and information technology.
2-The server provider needs to verify the information provided by the applicant (telephone number, mobile, email, address etc.) and sign a document to provide to the ministry of information attesting that such verification has been properly conducted.
3-A “domain name certificate” has been added to the list of documents to provide with the application. Considering that such certificates are typically issued by Chinese registrars only, it might signal that foreign registered domain names cannot anymore be used to apply for the ICP license.
4-The domain name owner name (as per domain name certificate) must correspond to the company name on the ICP license application.
5-A copy of the business license certificate, and Chinese ID card of contact person must be provided (previously, only the license numbers and ID cards numbers were required to file on the application form).
6-The contact person must come in person to the server provider office and have its photograph taken (we will see the possibility of avoiding this by having applicant provide a photograph by email; instructions to be provided upon request)
7-All application documents must now be sent in hard copy to the server provider.
8-The ICP application system website will now be changed to www.miitbeian.gov.cn
The three level application documents and the expanded list of documents make the whole ICP application much more difficult, and we estimate that it would push the application time from the current 2 to 3 weeks to a minimum of 1 to 3 months.
More rules or updates may come from the ministry of industry and information technology between now and the official launch of the new system on July 2oth, we will update this post accordingly.
Posted in Service Update | Comments Off on Major upgrade to the ICP license system in China – Photo ID now required
