/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ 0 Comments

What makes Wudi’s team so special

We know China is the factory of the world. There are millions of OEM factories out here. Most of them have a dream, selling to the customers directly. When they came to us, they only had one goal: that their website actually brings them orders, not just sit there being fancy and gathering dust.

How does that work? They have no brand, no channel, no marketing experience, they don’t even speak English.

This is a difficult situation that forced us to perform very well with SEO and value every single visitor.

We keep improving ourselves, from a pure development team to a full stack agency that mastered SEO, User Experience, and E-commerce strategies. We strive to put our clients’ stores at the top on search engines and optimize the conversion rate from the available traffic.

We have been offering E-commerce services for 8 years now and still going. Hundreds of small startups have succeeded with us.

As a Chinese background company, we know what we are good at it and we know what is the most important thing.

Choose us today!

/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ 0 Comments

WeChat advertising group filtering rules

When you do WeChat ads, you can target your potential customer based on those conditionals:

Behavioral interest / Someone like game or sport. and what they have done recently.

Age, gender, Education, Marriage status, Working status / Wechat know you more then yourself.

operating system / Very useful when you promoting an APP

New device user / You can remind someone changes a new phone.

Equipment prices / Apple users may willing to pay more buy stuff.

Networking method / If your ads are Video, you definitely need to choose 4G network.

Mobile operators / Some business guy only like China mobile.

Dressing index / Very useful for selling clothing.

UV index / Very useful for selling Cosmetics or sunglasses

Makeup index / Very useful for selling Cosmetics

Meteorological / If you are selling an umbrella, you gonna need this.

Temperature /  China is big, summer or winter could happen at the same time in China.

App installation / If someone happened installed an APP from your competitor, he may be is your client as well.

Consumption status / If someone spent a lot of money on shopping, will you like him?

Paying users / Some Chinese have a habit of paying for anything.

/ By Wudi / 在线营销 • 系统技术/ 0 Comments

Psychological insight into Chinese E-commerce online shoppers

I have been dealt with some western brand owners, which they are all very interested in Chinese e-commerce market. Huge sales. Huge population, the number one market in the world, bigger then combine USA and Europe together. How could they not?

But sadly most them facing failure for some reason, I can make a list of this (ASOA, COACH, Burberry), it is hard to hear any of them succeed in China.

Independent store, Tmall, JD, can’t save you for this.

This article is not to explain why, but just share some fun facts about Chinese online shoppers.. Maybe you can figure out yourself.

1 They are more sensitive to your Web Design;

My company also help Chinese company doing e-commerce in western Market. Most of them doing well actually ;>

So I found a very interest thing is an ugly store still selling well in the western market. You can change the design make it better if you want, but it’s doesn’t affect their sales so much.

But I have never seen an ugly Chinese store selling well.  Every successful store has a very professional design and photograph. In most of the Chinese e-commerce company there is a job called “美工”, this is a very important position, it’s kind of like “designer” but not really the same, most of the people consider  “designer” is about usability design and looking, but in China, it only means “looking”, because most of the Chinese seller selling in Taobao, Tmall..  Usability is controlled by platform. but their boss still pay 7K~20K month to keep this position. so you can see how important it is. Usually, the “美工” is skilled Photoshoper and they organize all the descriptions, makeup them with some icons or images.

I think the reason is Chinese’s language is a square character make Chinese like read well-displayed content…

2 They are more care about the relationship with the seller.

At the beginning of my business, I was very surprised are we helping Chinese company made a store selling to western. Western just buy it online without any communication with the shop owner.   The western customer just trusts it….

Well in China, it doesn’t work this way, if the shopper first time knows you, and they like what you selling. Before they made the purchase, they will send you a message on “wangwang”. (It’s an IM made by Alibaba, similar with QQ,).

The funniest thing is, they usually asking some very simple questions even silly questions… like:

“How long does it take to delivery to my home”, “do you have the size XL”, “is that item available”,

Or even weird questions:

“It’s really made by real “cow leather…”

Well, you definitely put all the details on your well-designed descriptions. But they still to ask you! And waiting for you to confirm on Aliwangwang,

Usually, the online customer service girls well send the message back like” “yes darling, it’s really made by real cow leather…I swear!”  Yea they do call the customers “darling”… so they made the sell.

They are millions of conversions like this happening every day in Taobao, such a waste of time. You always saw a bunch of online customer service sitting there until the middle of the night in the e-commerce companies. I can’t believe it, just a booking process takes so many human hours to handle.  It should be automatic without any real human….

But now I changed my mind, China is a developing county, the people need more trust from each other, they talk to you it not because something they lack awareness, they just want to build a relationship with you. Because in deep inside of Chinese, they think they don’t cheat each other’s on their face or cheat a people who talked to you

Chinese society is a typical Friendship Society, Chinese people are very kind to their relatives and friends, or to those who are familiar with them, but not the people they don’t know.  Chinese more care about their private morality, not public morality.

3 They are hard to accept new things (brand)

I’m not talking about the people who live in big cities. I’m talking about the Majority, they afraid to try new things, they don’t even want to know what it is. How can they buy your products?

So when you do the marketing, you have to make your brand connected with something which they already knew. So it’s no surprise in those years, all the successful new brands in China pay for some celebrities to present their products. Celebrity endorsements are happening everywhere.  But in China is the most powerful weapon.

You can find Yao Ming endorsements a fish-oil brand, (when the Yao Ming becomes an oil expert? I thought he is basketball player.. )  its sounds ridicules, but it works! So the people starting to pay attention to your things…. then they decide to believe what you’re saying about your products or not.

The funny part is it’s not that hard to gain Chinese customer’s trust since them staring pay attention to you (much Easier then Western). They don’t want to spend too much brain, you just need to keep saying what you say, repeat again and again, and they start to believe.

They don’t do too much logic thinking…. I guess this is another part of culture things. If you want to be a bad seller, you can win in China (but I don’t suggest you do that.)

but you could say I don’t have so much money to get Yao Ming.  well, you are lucky, now they are influencers actively promote products for business.  They have a certain group of Subscribers for all the industry. Go find them is easy and cheap, so even you don’t speak a single word of Chinese, you still can doing well in China.  The new marketing channels in China only happening those years. When the WeChat and MoMo, Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, app widely use before this, if you want to do business in China, you gonna need hire Chinese employees and set up a Chinese company in Shanghai or somewhere.

 4 We shopping products overpriced for us to increase our influence.

Now we are on a serious topic.

All the luxury brands benefit for this for so many years…which they don’t want to admit.

It’s not even worth a saying, shame to me as well, you can find so many strange things in China.

3K RMB monthly paid staff spent 6K to get a new iPhone, and they spent 500RMB rent a shitty room for living. Spent 20 RMB one day for food…

5K monthly paid lady spent 30K on the luxury bag, which is his saving for years…

A county farmer spent 20K get a nice car, spent half-life saving… even they live in a small town and only drive once a year.

We do have so many national brands like Xiaomi, Chery, and we have thousands of bag manufacturers (come on this is CHINA factory of the world).   You can get a nice phone for 1k, a quality bag for 200, a kickass car for 50K…   But why are they so stupid I read news about a guy sold her kidney to buy an iPhone.

So why.

Don’t think too much, you are facing a nation who has grouped desire expansion people.  The similar things happened in Japan and Korea in the 1970s as well.

So you may brand your product to delivery more Superficial advantage value to the customer a long history, a special lifestyle, a high-level group, limited Qty. A path to the higher class of sociality.

added on 2018/12

Things are changing so fast, the Chinese getting more rationalization in those years. 

/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ 0 Comments

The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging

The benefits of guest blogging are clear:

1. You land backlinks from authority sites.

2 . People look up to you as an expert.

3. Targeted referral traffic floods to your site.

Amazing, right?

The only question is:

How can you get BETTER results from guest posting?

That’s easy: follow my step-by-step guide to guest blogging domination.

Step 1: Find Guest Post Targets

Before you write a single word you need a list of targets to submit your content to.

Here are eight proven strategies to find them.

#1: Google Search Strings

Looking for something besides the typical “keyword” + “write for us”?

I’ve got you covered.

Here are 40-ish search strings you can use to find guest blogging opportunities with ease:

Your Keyword “guest post”Your Keyword “write for us”Your Keyword “guest article”

Your Keyword “guest post opportunities”

Your Keyword “this is a guest post by”

Your Keyword “contributing writer”

Your Keyword “want to write for”

Your Keyword “submit blog post”

Your Keyword “contribute to our site”

Your Keyword “guest column”

Your Keyword “submit content”

Your Keyword “submit your content”

Your Keyword “submit post”

Your Keyword “This post was written by”

Your Keyword “guest post courtesy of ”

Your Keyword “guest posting guidelines”

Your Keyword “suggest a post”

Your Keyword “submit an article”

Your Keyword “contributor guidelines”

Your Keyword “contributing writer”

Your Keyword “submit news”Your Keyword “become a guest blogger”Your Keyword “guest blogger”

Your Keyword “guest posts wanted”

Your Keyword “looking for guest posts”

Your Keyword “guest posts wanted”

Your Keyword “guest poster wanted”

Your Keyword “accepting guest posts”

Your Keyword “writers wanted”

Your Keyword “articles wanted”

Your Keyword “become an author”

Your Keyword “become guest writer”

Your Keyword “become a contributor”

Your Keyword “submit guest post”

Your Keyword “submit an article”

Your Keyword “submit article”

Your Keyword “guest author”

Your Keyword “send a tip”

Your Keyword inurl: “guest blogger”

Your Keyword inurl: “guest post”

allintitle: Your Keyword + guest post

#2: “My Guest Posts” Pages

Some bloggers love to brag about the places that they’ve been published.

And these lists are a gold mine of hard to find guest post targets.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

Here’s how to find them:

Your Keyword  “my posts on other blogs”

Your Keyword: “guest post”

Your Keyword  “my guest posts”

Your Keyword “my guest blogs”

Your Keyword  “posts on other blogs”

Your Keyword “I’ve been featured on”

Your Keyword “sites I’ve written for”

#3: Google Reverse Image Search

This is cool:

First, find a competitor that tends to guest post on a lot of high-quality blogs in your niche.

Then grab the URL of their headshot and pop it into Google reverse image search:

And you’ll get a list of places they’ve guest posted presented to you on a silver platter:

#4: Twitter and Google +

You can use most search strings in Twitter and Google+ and get a completely different set of results .

And because Twitter results are fresher than Google’s index you can usually find sites that are actively on the hunt for guest posts.

First, head over to Twitter search and enter your search string:

Then sift through the results to find potential guest posting targets:

You can follow a similar process over at Google+.

#5: Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineer your first and second page competition using your backlink tracking tool of choice.

When you do, you’ll uncover a treasure trove of niche-specific guest posting opportunities.

The best part about this strategy is that you can find sites that aren’t openly advertising the fact that they accept guest posts (which can make them hard to find using search strings).

But you CAN find them with reverse engineering.

#6: AllTop.com

If only there was a place that listed the best blogs on the internet, organized by niche.

Oh, wait there is !

It’s called AllTop.com and it’s my secret weapon when I want links from my niche’s cream of the crop.

Just head over to AllTop, enter your keyword and you’ll get a list of the niche’s best sites:

Of course, not all of the sites in AllTop accept guest posts. But with enough legwork you can find a few gems that you may have otherwise missed.

#7: Blog Comment Bonanza

This is one of my all-time favorite link building strategies:

If you’re a serial guest poster you’ve probably noticed that other bloggers often comment on your posts:

Instead of patting yourself on the back, why not reach out to Simon and Dave and ask them if they’d accept a post on their site?

They’ll usually say yes (after all they liked your content enough to comment on it).

Here’s a script that I use:

Hey Simon,

Thanks for taking the time to comment on my guest post at Example.com.

I never thought of the fact that (insert something they said in the comment).

That’s a good point.

Anyway, I actually have another guest post idea that would be perfect for your site.

It’s called: “5 Tips X…”

I could have it sent to you this week.

Either way, thanks again for your insights!

Best,

Me

#8: Pre-Made Target Lists

Why spend hours searching for guest posting opportunities when other bloggers have already done the hard work for you?

For example, here’s a fantastic list of guest posting targets:

To find them yourself, use these nifty search strings:

Your Keyword “guest posting sites”

Your Keyword “accept guest posts”

Your Keyword “guest post sites”

Step #2: Research Your Targets

Now that you have a decent-sized list it’s time to refine the list and warm up your prospects.

Here’s are four ways to do it:

#1: Separate Winners and Losers

High quality guest post writing is a resource intensive process.

Don’t waste your precious time on sub par blogs.

Go all Darwin on your target list…and weed out weak sites.

In general you want sites that:

Have an authoritative link profile

Are related to your site

Only post high quality content

Have a real following

Can bring you targeted traffic ( Alexa )

Won’t bury your link in an author bio area far below your content

Have a significant amount of Twitter followers and Facebook fans

Of course there’s no objective set of criteria that will tell you “this blog fits the bill” or “this one doesn’t cut the mustard”.

You have to just use your noggin and stick to sites that give you the most bang for your buck.

#2: Warm Up Your Targets

If you’re desperate for a link from a particular site (or if the site gets a lot of guest post submissions) you want to get on the webmaster’s radar screen before your pitch.

That way, when you reach out, they’ll be like “Oh yeah, that’s Jim, the guy who leaves all those awesome comments.”

Because this takes some time I recommend using this strategy ONLY for top-tier blogs in your niche.

Here’s how:

1. Engage on Twitter: One of the fastest ways to get your name etched on a blogger’s brain is to engage them on Twitter.

This is something that Andrew Youderlan of ecommercefuel.com did to get published on Shopify.com:

2. Blog Comment: Take a few minutes to write a legitimately insightful and helpful comment or two on their site and you’ll be their BFF.

3. Email Them: If you’re feeling frisky you can even email the site owner a week or two before your pitch just to tell them how helpful a specific piece of content was to you.

#3: Find The Perfect Guest Post Topic

Now that you’ve warmed up your list, it’s time to find some killer topic ideas.

But an incredible topic isn’t enough:

If you send an article on “10 Health Benefits of Beef” to a vegan blog you’re going to get it tossed back.

So remember this:

You need a topic that fits their site like a glove

Take it from someone that has published over 250 guest posts…

…if you can write content that speaks to their audience you’ll have no problem whatsoever getting your post accepted.

Here’s how to find the perfect topic:

Audience Knowledge Level: If you’re hell bent on writing a guest post about SEO, you need to know who you’re writing for before you set pen to paper. If it’s Moz, you can go hog wild with SEO jargon. But if it’s for a small business blog you may need to tone things down a tad.

Outdated Information: Check for popular articles on the site that are a bit out of date. Write a similar piece with updated content.

Read Published Guest Posts: What have other people posted already? This will give you an idea of what the site owner looks for when vetting posts.

Recent Stuff: If they’ve posted about Pinterest twice this week you probably don’t want to send them something Pinterest-related (even if it’s a completely different angle). Keep it fresh.

#4: Guest Post Guidelines

I know you have better things to do with your life than to read a set of boring guest post guidelines.

I get that.

But some bloggers have really, really specific guidelines.

Some are there to standardize their posts.

Others are there to make sure people actually read them .

Either way, it’s important that you take them to heart.

Because there’s nothing worse than writing up a 1200-word masterpiece…only to have it rejected because of a 1000-word limit.

Step#3: The Pitch

Imagine for a second that you’re the owner of a bustling, authority site.

You’ve got posts to write, tweets to tweet, and an overflowing inbox.

How are you going to react when you get a generic email that’s trying to hard sell you?

You got it: hit the delete button as fast as possible.

Here’s a battle-tested email template to use instead:

Hi (name),

I’m a long time reader. You may have noticed my comment on your post on X (awesome article by the way).

I’m writing to you because I’d love to contribute a guest post to Example.com.

I’ve been brainstorming some topics that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:

-Idea #1

-Idea #2

-Idea #3

I’ll make sure the piece overflows with information that can’t be found anywhere else.

To give you an idea of the quality I’ll bring to your site, here’s a link to a guests post that I recently published on Example.com.

Cheers,

Me

Here’s what makes this email template so effective:

Starts off with something specific about THEIR SITE

Short and sweet (aim for 150 words or less)

Gives them specific topics to choose from (less work for them)

Soft sell

Touches on your experience and published work

Send a Complete Article

If you want to roll the dice you can send over a complete article that’s ready to rock.

I usually only do this with medium-tier blogs. A-list bloggers usually want to work with you through the entire process.

Step #4: The Post

You’ve put in enough digital elbow grease to compile a streamlined target list.

Awesome.

Now you need to actually send them something.

My “2 Tier System”

Look:

There are only so many hours in a day.

You can’t produce a 3000-word masterpiece for every single site in the world.

That’s why you should separate your targets into two tiers:

Tier 1: These are the top 25-50 undisputed authority sites in your niche. Sites that you actually visit and learn from.

Tier 2: Sites that are acceptable enough to warrant a guest post…but not authoritative enough to spend a day researching, writing and editing.

Tier 1 Content

Content for tier 1 sites should be as good or better than what you post on your own site.

I’m talking mind blowing pillar content that forces the hand of the site owner to hit “publish”.

Content that changes minds, sparks conversation, and spurs action.

Content that could appear on the homepage of Life Hacker or the Huffington Post.

Because if you try to sneak something “meh” onto their site…you’re not going to get very far.

Remember: Authority sites are authorities because they only post quality stuff. Period.

And they’re not going to drop their standards just because you commented on their site a few times…

…you really need to bring it.

Here are some things you should do when writing Tier 1 guest post content:

Send a System: If you look at pillar content on any site (including this one) you’ll notice that they have one thing in common: they lay out a complete step-by-step system for reaching a certain outcome. Systems have a much higher perceived value than a generic set of tips.

Length is Strength: Longer posts look much better than 400-worders. I shoot for at least 1500-words for tier 1 sites…although I’ve gone as far as banging out 5000-word monsters to help me stand out from the pack.

Edit Like a Madman: Show the blogger that you care about their site by editing your post like you have OCD. Hire an editor on Elance if you have to.

Custom Screenshots, Flowcharts and Images: Screenshots and other visual tools to illustrate your system adds meaty value to the post.

Internal Linking: Imagine the warm and fuzzy feeling your target will get when you link to some of their best content in your guest post. Remember that bloggers are human beings that appreciate these little things.

To give you an idea of what tier 1 guest post content looks like, here are two examples:

Be Everywhere: How I Got 2000+ NEW Visitors To My Site…With A Front Page PowerPoint Presentation on Slideshare

5 Travel Lessons You Can Use at Home

Tier 2 Content

Tier 2 sites deserve some love too.

If they’re on your list, it that they must have something going for them.

While I don’t go hog wild for these sites…I DO send something of value (even if I outsource the writing).

Of course you can always go the extra mile for these sites too…

…but I rather spend that time watching Shark Tank (love that show).

Contextual Links

Pop quiz:

What’s better than a link from an authority site in your niche?

That’s right: a contextual link from an authority site in your niche!

Sure, big G gives author bio backlinks some love…

…but nothing beats a good old fashioned link imbedded inside an article .

I’ve been able to finagle contextual links from tier 1 sites by doing one simple thing: asking.

If you send a 2000-word beast then it’s perfectly reasonable ask for a contextual link in return.

Step #5: Follow Up

You’re almost done.

Here are some things I do to get the most from every guest post:

1. Actively Respond to Comments: Don’t post and run. Take the time to respond to people’s comments as they roll in. In fact, I usually leave a comment to show the blogger that I’m happy to answer comments:

2. Promote Using Your Social Media Channels: This is a win-win-win. Your target gets traffic, you look like a published expert and you’ve shared something of value with your community.

3. Send a Thank You Note:  I usually send tier 1 sites a quick follow up email letting them know I appreciated the opportunity (this keeps the line open for the next time you want to guest post on their site).

4. Blog Comment Bonanza:  As described in Step 1, I’ll sometimes reach out to the commenter and see if I can land a guest post opportunity on their site.

Insider Secrets

Just a few golden nuggets I couldn’t find space for in the guide:

1. Send your post in HTML so they can easily copy and paste it into WordPress (If you want to use images you can link to Flikr images or upload them to another photo hosting sites).

2. When you send the post, change the file name so it’s tailored to their site: Backlinko_GuestPost.txt vs. 10SEOTips.txt.

3. If you’re sending over a how-to or tutorial post, consider throwing in a video or .pdf download to compliment the article. This is one of those things that no one does and makes you look like a rock star.

4. Bloggers love posts that inspire debate and conversation. Don’t be afraid to write something controversial or that goes against conventional wisdom.

5. For a better CTR to your site, make your author bio super enticing. Don’t just say “Brian is the proud owner of Backlinko “. Give the reader a reason to click through to your site. Let them know about your free report, an awesome post or just tell them a benefit they’ll get out of visiting your site.

That’s enough from me…now I want to hear from you.

Any shortcuts or tips that I missed here?

Post your thoughts, insights and opinions in the comment box below.

/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ / 0 Comments

Chinese ICP registration

When you willing to do online business in China, you should noticed that you need ICP .. what exactly is  ICP?

So ICP is short of Internet Content Provider , according Chinese law if you provide any online content to Chinese citizens , you need a ICP.. (now you know why facebook and google get blocked ? :/ )

But most of people didn’t get it quick well.

ICP has “ICP put on record” and “ICP license” ,

ICP put on record (beian) is easy. lots of hosting company can do it for free.. (but you need due bunch of certifications images… takes you half month. )

But ICP license is a problem…. it’s required so much conditions..

  • you need a Chinese citizen owned & controlled  company (means Chinese hold at least 51% shares of the company…).
  • you need have at least three official employee , I mean official employee ..
  • you need at least have three official employee owns “Network administrator certificate ”  (I m a IT guy in China, I don’t know what it is…)
  • you need ton of paper works ……
  • you need wait more then 1 years..
  • you need be-careful, some province & cities has their own policy …. like Shanghai ,Guangzhou..

I tell you this , just because I wanna to say,  you can give up ..

there are some agencies in the market says can help you get it..(from backdoor…)  but cost you 50000 RMB..

so my advice is you just need ICP put on recode . leave the ICP license behind…after you grown up.

I know you could say:” hmmm, you are telling me break the low?”

the really happen is Chinese GOV too busy to change the policy ,and local GOV wanna drive the economies right direction . so the GOV don’t really care about it…  even though you running without license….

so here is what we offer:

ICP:

 

 

/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ • • • / 0 Comments

What does adjusting Magento to China mean?

Magento is great. But if you want to use it in the Chinese market, Magento localization for China is necessary. What services do we offer that are specially made for the Chinese market?

Style & design

Design always matters, and especially in China. The Chinese are getting more and more demanding in terms of design, our tastes are very different from that of people from Western countries. Our perception of colors is very special and we attach a great importance to it. An elegant design tailored to Chinese tastes is thus crucial and will help engage your customers.
So here is what we do：
  • Magento with a Chinese design and development
  • We give you a western back-end (magento), and a Chinese front end.

Special functionalities

As you know, the Chinese market is very special. Due to its particularities, the following steps are fundamental to satisfy Chinese customers:
  • Pre-input Chinese provinces and major cities to speed up check-out process
  • Billing process in line with Chinese practices (we don’t shop with credit cards so we don’t have a billing address for example).
  • Invoice (“Fapiao”) generation. Being able to obtain an invoice for any purchase is extremely important in China. You cannot skip this step.
  • Custom translation for the Chinese market (we will translate everything instead of using the default Magento translation which is frankly quite terrible).

Payment

China currently has more than ten payment gateway providers. The most popular ones are Alipay, Wechat pay and Union pay. Union pay is less popular these days as most payments are now done through a mobile phone, a trend that Union Pay has had some problems keeping up with.
 There are other payment gateway providers such as “kuaiqian”, “baidu wallet”, “yeepay”, “JD pay”. But right now, just Alipay and WeChat pay cover more than 95% of online shoppers, so our focus is on these payment services.
Added to the fact that there are different providers, each payment solution provides many different ways of paying, which can be confusing. To make it simple for you, here is what we provide:
  • Alipay integration for PC
    • Alipay Scan payment getaway: customers will scan a QR code which enables direct payment through Alipay. Scanning QR codes is the most popular way of paying in China right now.
    • Alipay classic payment getaway (traditional payment gateway)
  • Alipay mobile integration
    • Mobile phone version Alipay payment (jump to html5 version alipay)
    • Native Alipay app payment (redirection to native alipay payment)
  • Wechat pay integration
    • WeChat web payment (QR code scan payment for PC users)
    • WeChat native payment (redirection to WeChat pay through your store)

Social network integration

We provide a full integration to all the most popular social networks in China: Weibo, WeChat friends, QQ zone.
  • WeChat
    • Wechat friends sharing
    • Wechat timeline sharing
  • Sharing on Weibo (equivalent of twitter in China)
    • sharing on weibo
    • login with weibo account

Contact us

These are the main functionalities we provide that are specifically made for the Chinese localization of your website. There are of course many others, do not hesitate to ask us if you have any ideas in mind.
Please leave a comment or contact us directly by e-mail or by scanning the QR code below if you have any questions or comments.
/ By Wudi / 系统技术/ / 0 Comments

Chinese ICP Licensing: What, Why and How to Get Hosted in China

If you want a serious web presence in mainland China, you’ll need an ICP License ; and while there’s an increasing interest in cozying

up to the Chinese web market, there’s not a ton of comprehensive

I’ll cover what an ICP license is, whether or not you should bother, and the

myriad joys of slogging through the bureaucratic hurdles.

Hold on a Minute Before you use this as your de-facto Bible, bear a few

things in mind: one, internet laws in China change all the time, and what’s

true today may not be true tomorrow. And two, unless you have an extreme

masochistic streak, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to actually follow these steps

without help from a fluent Chinese speaker. None of the sites you’ll need to

visit are in English (yet), and even if you could machine-translate your way

through the mire, some user registrations require that you input an

SMS verification code which only sends to China-based mobile numbers, and not

all of the sites mentioned accept international payment methods. So I

understand that for many, this article will be, at best, an academic look into what it takes to get square with the Chinese hosting

authorities. If you do have access to a Chinese speaker, however, or if you already have a business outpost in China, this article should

give you the resources you send you on your way to ICP bliss.

What is an

ICP License? An ICP (Internet Content Provider) license is a state-issued registration number that

allows you to host your website on a mainland Chinese server. All sites hosted

on a server in the Chinese mainland must, by law, apply for and receive one of

these babies before their site goes live, a rule enforced at the hosting level. Getting an ICP license is an additional step that is taken after you buy your hosting and domain, but before your site goes live. ICP license numbers are usually displayed in the small print in website footers.

Here’s one in the footer of popular classifieds portal  58.com . The ICP license number usually includes a single character indicating the Chinese province in which the license was issued, then the word “ICP License”, then the number itself:

The footer of video sharing site  Youku.com :

And from the footer of new site NetEase :

Is Getting an ICP at all Avoidable? The short answer is that if you want to host your website on a mainland Chinese server, no–you have to have an ICP.  But do you really have to host in mainland China? Consider:

Only sites within the Chinese mainland are

required by law to have an ICP, so if your site isn’t hosted on the mainland,

you don’t need one. It’s not even possible to apply for one if your site is

hosted elsewhere. Many firms counsel their clients to host in Hong Kong, since

Hong Kong servers are pretty close geographically, but they are governed by a different

set of laws.

ICP licenses don’t technically have much to do with whether or not your site is visible or blocked in China. Sites with ICPs get taken offline all the time. Sites without them may be visible indefinitely. The ICP simply means you’ve been approved to host your website on a mainland Chinese server. That’s it.   With those points in mind, the answer to whether or not you

need an ICP revolves around how serious you are about entering the Chinese

market and on what scale. If you’re taking a real stab at getting a piece of

the China pie, you need to be able to compete with sites locally, so yes, you

need one, with all the paperwork that entails. But if you’re a small- or medium-sized company with a basic website that’s

only tangentially interested in reaching Chinese users, then you can probably

host in Hong Kong with no problem.

What Will Happen if I Don’t Have an ICP? Maybe nothing, maybe your entire business plan will turn to ash in your mouth.

Without an ICP, you’ll be unable to purchase hosting in

mainland China, because all hosts will ask for your ICP license before they

release server credentials to you.

Ooh, ran into a genuine ICP non-compliance take-down notice. Website taken down for failure to legally register. pic.twitter.com/9U4GyWyHKF

— Kendra Schaefer (@kendraschaefer) March 4, 2015

That said, there are plenty of non-China-hosted sites that

do just fine without an ICP. If your site is small enough, and doesn’t contain

any politically sensitive keywords or is not hosted on any blocked domains or

IP ranges, your site will probably work in China,

though it may be a little slow. However, if your site becomes blocked, or the host you’re hosting with becomes blocked, you’ll

have no recourse by which to unblock it. You can’t call anyone, file a report,

appeal to government agency, or even ask to know what happened and why. You

are, in essence, outside the system.

Who Can Apply for an ICP License ( ICP Bei An – 备案 )  A basic ICP Bei An  license is the standard, run-of-the-mill

paperwork required by all mainland China-hosted websites. The following

entities may apply for a basic ICP:

Chinese-owned businesses with a Chinese business license (duh) can apply for a Business ICP (企业备案) Partially or wholly foreign-owned (non-Chinese) businesses with any type of Chinese business license (Joint-Venture or WOFE, for example), can apply for a Business ICP Chinese nationals, using their state-issued ID, can apply for an Individual ICP (个人备案) Foreign (non-Chinese) individuals, using their passport as ID, who can be physically present in China long enough to fulfill some basic registration requirements, can apply for an Individual ICP The following entities  may not  apply for an ICP:

Foreign businesses with no legal business presence in China Foreign individuals without a passport (and who are therefore ideally not residing in China) The following entities can technically  apply for an ICP, but probably shouldn’t:

Extremely tenacious and self-hating foreign

(non-Chinese) individuals, using their passport as ID, who are not and cannot

be physically present in China at all, and who are willing to sell their souls to obtain:  A Chinese landline number A Chinese cell phone number An Alipay.com  account (China’s Paypal equivalent) hooked up to an international Visa/Mastercard or other source of funds. A Chinese mail-forwarding service or friend based in China who will receive a package for you and send it on A Chinese speaker to help out with reading web registration forms, or a desire to spend several months locked in a torrid love-hate relationship with Google Translate  Commercial ICP ( 中华人民共和国增值电信业务经营许可证, or 经营许可证 for short )  There’s another type of ICP license that is only for companies who primarily

conduct business online. In other words, if your business is conducted mostly

or entirely over the interwebz, if you never meet your customers in person, and

particularly if you’ll be engaging in online sales or accepting online payments

in China, you’ll need one of these.

The following entities  may get an

E-Commerce ICP:

Chinese-owned businesses with a Chinese business license. In theory, Joint-Venture companies where less than 50% of the company is owned by a non-Chinese can legally apply. In practice, according to several local Chinese agencies, Commercial ICPs are rarely issued to companies with any foreign investment whatsoever. Everyone else is out of luck. Businesses wishing to obtain a Commercial ICP can’t go through online channels to apply–they need to contact the relevant government body directly before doing anything else, so this article will focus primarily on Basic ICP.

The

Application Process Outlined Since the process is a little convoluted, let’s do a quick

overview before we dive into the procedural details. After you purchase your hosting and before that hosting account is unlocked for you, you submit your ICP application form and documents to the web host, the host checks them and submits them to the provincial government branch of the  Ministry of Industry and Information Technology  (MIIT –  gong ye he xin xi hua bu –  工业和信息化部), the Chinese government agency responsible for issuing ICP licenses. If the application’s approved, MIIT notifies the host, the host unlocks your account and you’re good to go.

MIIT offers a

flowchart outlining the process. I have the original here, with a

translated version:

The most interesting thing you’ll notice here is that you,

the site owner, will never interface with the MIIT yourself–that’s the

hosting company’s job. It wasn’t always so: it used to be that you had to apply via the MIIT site, but that seems to have changed.

All roads begin with hosting, and all hosting begins with Aliyun Aliyun.com  was originally China’s answer to Amazon

AWS , but since their parent company, e-comm powerhouse Alibaba Group, has been

snatching up smaller storage and domain providers, the Aliyun family of sites

has become China’s most popular one-stop-shop for all things host-related.

Because so many site owners go directly through Aliyun to

get their ICP numbers, the Aliyun site and the Aliyun user forums  have become, in my opinion, the best source

of information on ICP Licensing procedure.

Last Notes Before We Dig In Before we dig into the meat of the process, a few notes gleaned from the hallowed Aliyun halls:

Servers, Domains and ICP ICP licenses are tied to both a particular IP and a particular

domain name–you must provide both server IP and domain during the Bei An registration process. You cannot

apply for an ICP license using a domain name registered outside of China. This

also means that if you move your site to a new server sometime in the future,

you must update your ICP license with the new server information. This is another reason I recommend doing the

process via Aliyun and their sister companies: they can provide an integrated

set of solutions that let you buy hosting, buy a domain, and bind your ICP

License application to a specific domain/server pair.

FYI: If you don’t read Chinese, you’ll

need help Before you plow forward, know this: if you can’t speak or

read Chinese, you’ll need help to continue. While it’s my fervent hope that

this changes in the near future, as of now, the Aliyun website and management

panel interface is currently only available in Chinese. If you’re not sure how to proceed, there’s a firm called  ICP Services , which specializes in helping foreigners and foreign companies submit ICP applications–you might want to consider dropping them a line.

FY-Sigh: every Chinese province has

its own ICP License regulations Bear with me while I throw an extra layer on top of this

cake: businesses registering

for an ICP license must register in the province their business license was

issued in. In other words, if your business was opened in Henan Province , you

must register for an ICP under Henan regulations.

Not so for individuals, though. Individuals who are

registering for a basic ICP may choose to base their registration in any

Chinese province. In other words, I could choose to register from Beijing or

Sichuan , so there’s a little wiggle room for picking and choosing

your place of issue.

Why would you care about provincial place of issue? In general, the regulations don’t change too much from province

to province, but there are some slight variations and some provinces might suit you better than others. Hebei Province , for example,

does not allow non-Hebei residents to register from there, while Beijing

Province does, so if I was a non-Chinese individual living in Hebei, I could choose to

register under Beijing regulations and still get my ICP.  Hilariously, Liaoning Province regulations

state that when you get your registration photo taken, you have to be wearing “seasonally

appropriate clothing” (fifty bucks to the first Liaoning ICP registration in a Santa Suit).

The Aliyun website offers an interactive map that shows

rules  on a per-province basis–click on any province

to see the regulations below. Each set of rules is broken into two

tabs, the default tab is for companies, the second tab for individuals.

Unless you have a particular preference, I’d say just go

ahead and register from Beijing.

Okay, Let’s do This Step 1: Register a domain in China and buy hosting You’ll need to fill in your domain and some server data on your ICP license registration form, so you have to buy hosting and register a

domain name before anything else happens; and since ICP licenses can’t be attached to hosts based outside of China or domain names registered outside of China, you have to go through a Chinese provider. A walk-through of that process is a bit out of the scope of this

article, but allow me to get your feet pointed in the right direction: you can buy both of these goodies from  Net.cn (yes, they sell .cn domain names!), another Alibaba Group member company, but in order to do that, you’re going

to need an Aliyun Passport account, which you can register for here .

The

Aliyun user panels (from which you’ll manage your ICP licenses) are integrated with the Net.cn user panels (from which you’ll manage your hosting and domains) via Aliyun

Passport. If you’re logged into Aliyun, when you go to the Net.cn home page,

you’ll already be logged in there too, and you can (and should) use the same username and

password to purchase hosting and a domain.

Let me again clarify that you do not have to go through Aliyun–they’re just one of many Chinese hosts you can choose. I’m recommending them here because of their size and because of the integrated ICP/hosting/domain experience.

If you’re based outside of China, you’ll probably need to call net.cn to make this purchase.

The net.cn online cart requires

all sorts of stuff you won’t have, like a Chinese state ID number, a Chinese

landline, and only offers Chinese payment methods. Accepted payment methods:

Step 2:  Get your Bei An service number Go back to your Aliyun.com user account and snag a  “ Bei An

service number” (备案服务号), which is a

free-floating ID that you’ll bind to a server and domain. The Bei An Service

Number is the glue that binds your server IP, your domain name, and your ICP

application filing together. You may have more than one Bei An Service Number. You can find these in your Aliyun user

profile.

Logged in users should first click the Apply ( shen qing 申请 ) button here . The application is often approved immediately.

You’ll

then be able to find a list of your Bei An Service Numbers in your user profile area.

Before you move on, you’ll have to bind your Bei An service

number to the server you purchased at Net.cn (or wherever). This can be done with a couple of clicks in the

Bei An management panel pictured above.

Step 3: Register for

the Aliyun ICP Management System (ICP 代备案管理系统) Okay,

you have the server, you have the domain, you have the Bei An service

number. Let’s ask the powers that be for an ICP license. Start by getting an account in the ICP application system here.

Step 4: Log in to the Aliyun ICP Management System and fill out the registration form Once you’ve registered, you can login here , and you’ll be taken directly to the first page of the ICP application form. This is a long, multi-page deal in which you’ll need to enter your Bei An service number, a Chinese landline and Chinese mobile phone number, a ton of details about your site, plus upload a picture of your passport, so ensure you have some time to kill.

First, you’ll fill in your domain name (Aliyun reminds

us once again not to use a domain registered outside of China, and tells us what to do

in case multiple domains point to the same host), what province and district

you want to register from, what type of ICP you’re after (military, government,

personal, business, social), what type of ID you’ll be providing, a space to fill in your

ID number, and a CAPTCHA.

You’ll be asked to choose a service type (Aliyun) and input your

Service Number:

You’ll be asked to input some basic info about the

content of the site–what type of site is it? What languages will it be in?

You’ll also need to upload a copy of your passport, and a

copy of your business license if you’re applying as a company:

Step 5: Submit your

documents for Aliyun’s approval Once you’ve finished filling out all those details, submit

the application to Aliyun for pre-approval. They’re pretty knowledgeable about

what gets rejected and what doesn’t, so they’ll let you know within one

business day if there’s any problem with your application.

Step 6: Get your

photo taken Okay, this is the interesting part. In recent days past,

Aliyun/MIIT required that ICP applicants physically visit one of several

designated locations and get an official photo taken as part of the application

process. This is still a very common way to meet this requirement, and there

are official pic-taking locations in most major Chinese cities.

This rule meant that while any passport holder living outside

of China could technically apply for

a Basic ICP using just their passport, they still had to be in China long

enough to get a picture taken at one of these places.

But Aliyun has recently added an alternative method:

applicants can now request that an official “ mu bu ” (幕布),

meaning “curtain”, is shipped to you, and Aliyun will send it anywhere in China

for free. The mu bu , as you may have

guessed, is Aliyun’s official photo backdrop. Once users receive the backdrop,

they take a headshot against it, and upload it to Aliyun.

Several Chinese nationals residing overseas took to the

Aliyun forums to ask if the mu bu

could be shipped internationally. As of July 2014, Aliyun forum mods say they

are “ temporarily unable to ship mu bu outside

of China ”. [Sadface]

Until they sort out international shipping, there is a way round this: Chinese users elsewhere on the forums suggest having the  mu bu  shipped to someone in China who can then ship it to you. It doesn’t matter where you have the photo taken, just that you can get your hands on a  mu bu , so if you can swing China mail forwarding or have a friend on the mainland, you should be able to sort this out.

Step 7: Wait for MIIT

to approve  Providing your application data has received the nod from

Aliyun and you’ve uploaded an acceptable pic, Aliyun will then pass your

application on to the MIIT.

Because you have to purchase hosting before you can even

begin the ICP application, Aliyun offers reimbursement for any time you spent

waiting for your documentation to go through, up to 30 days. In other words,

since you can’t use the hosting account you just bought until you get your ICP,

Aliyun will tack free hosting days onto your account for every day (up to 30)

you spent waiting for the approval.

So, although no one really wants to give a definite

timeline, this evidence (coupled with some anecdotal stories) suggests that the

process typically takes no more than four weeks.

Step 8: Congrats–you’re an exhausted, grey-haired ICP license holder!  Now please bandage your wrists up and get yourself a

popsicle.

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The

Mysterious “Pre-Approval” Process  To further complicate matters, certain sites require

“Pre-Approval” ( qian zhi shen ci –  前置审批) from

the government before you begin the process of submitting an ICP application via

the hosting company.  Pre-Approval primarily applies to:

News sites Forums Media distribution (video and audio – think Youtube or Spotify) Sites distributing medical information, equipment or pharmaceuticals Online games  A vaguely-worded assortment of “cultural” websites The way I read this is that if you’re launching a web app in China, if you’re facilitating communication between users, if you’re going into the business of publishing the news, or if you’re in an industry where quackery is dangerous, you need to ask MIIT first, and request any relevant forms.

From a mod on the Aliyun forums  in January 2015, in response to a user asking about setting up a forum:

“Dear OP! Currently MIIT Requirements state that a forum cannot exist on a site registered with an Individual ICP. Even a Business ICP holder that wants to put up a forum must contact the appropriate government department and get Pre-Approval documents before they can set this up. If you put up a forum without following these rules, if the government department checks, they may close down your site or cancel your ICP, please note.”

Pre-Approval also applies to those looking for a Commercial ICP license. If your site needs Pre-Approval at all, Aliyun can’t help you until you’ve spoken to the government agency. Everything I’ve read indicates that Pre-Approval can only be obtained by contacting the MIIT in the province you wish to register from and getting a consultation on a case-by-case basis. The MIIT site provides an XLS containing every provincial office number in the country. I’ve translated that list and you can download it from here .

How to Make This Go Away This process is not for the faint of heart. I fully suspect most of you intelligent souls will take a look at this and conclude you’d rather not bother, but as the market grows, I imagine more and more non-Chinese individuals and companies will find an ICP registration necessary. If you have specific questions related to your situation, I’d reach out to  ICP Services  and ask them what they can do.  Eggplant  is another good choice.

Good luck, and Godspeed.