Why you need to host in China

If you are serious about targeting Chinese Internet users, having your website hosted inside the 'Great Firewall of China' is essential.

Avoid the potential pitfalls of maintaining a Chinese website and make sure you remain fully accessible to potential customers.

The effects of Internet regulation in China mean that unless your website is hosted within the so-called 'Great Firewall' your website is likely to be either:

  • Blocked altogether
  • Blocked some of the time
  • Extremely slow loading

The government managed firewall, officially termed the Golden Shield Project, is designed to monitor and control the content viewed by Chinese Internet users. If a website contains any content deemed inappropriate by the Chinese government it faces being blocked.

Worse still, if another site hosted on your server is banned, the whole server - your site included - is likely to be blocked. If you are hosted on a shared server outside mainland China, the very real potential for your site to be banned at any time might be beyond your control.

Inside the Great Firewall

Hosting in mainland China is vital to provide visitors in China with good access to your site. Even if sites hosted outside the Great Firewall are accessible, they are likely to load so slowly that Chinese users will give up and go elsewhere; it is equivalent to a The Great Firewall of Chinatwo-tier Internet, where Chinese sites are ultra-fast and those outside are rendered so slow loading as to make them useless.

It is widely thought that a major cause of Google's failure to gain popularity in the Chinese market was due to poor access to their site from China. To address this, Google established the Google.cn service, which is based in China.

Chinese search engines, such as Baidu, also favour websites hosted in China and give higher rankings to these sites. At least part of the reason for Baidu's success is that they give priority in their search results for fast loading, Chinese hosted sites, producing a better experience for their users.

Restrictions on Chinese Hosting

Several companies have attempted to share ICP licences with Chinese partners, leading to problems with the regulators. In 2006, Google's Chinese service got into trouble after MII took issue with their sharing of local firm, Ganji.com's licence.

In order to host a website in China, you must first have an ICP licence, which are issued by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

In turn, to get an ICP licence you need to have a Chinese business name. This is different from establishing a business in China, but is still a legal requirement for companies wanting to host a website in China.

 

As part of Backbone IT Group's China Search Marketing service, you will get your own Chinese business name and your own ICP licence, eliminating problems associated with licence sharing.

The service also includes creation of a fully Chinese language site, with Chinese design and search terms optimised for the local market. Chinese and Western website design are very different; to find out more take a look at our basic guide to Chinese and Western web design.

To enquire about any aspect of our China Search Marketing service contact us now.

Arranging good local hosting is just one of many unique considerations to take into account when doing online business in China.

To succeed in the Chinese market, your website needs to fully comply with China's Internet regulations.

As a company with an established legal presence in China since 2004, Backbone IT Group are perfectly placed to advise you on Chinese hosting and content issues.

Our China Search Marketing service includes everything your business needs to target the Chinese online marketplace; from an ICP licence and hosting to a Chinese language website with local optimisation.

If you would like to find out more about the service just complete our enquiry form:

China Search Marketing enquiry
Company Name:
Contact Name:
Position in company:
Company Email:
Company website address:
Company Telephone:
From which country or
state are you?

(This helps us contact you in
your own time zone)
My interest is in the following service:

 

We aim to get back to you within 8 working hours.

Your details will only ever be used to contact you with details of this service.

UK Direct Tel:
01524 65533

UK 24hr Local Tel:
0845 057 3371

US Toll Free:
1 877 413 1158

Email Us
 

 

Last Updated : 4th July 2008

 
| Email Us Valid CSS! Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict