Being seen on the internet in China articles
In many ways, Chinese trading is no different from any other country or region. Chinese businesses and consumers will always look for your business's internet presence.
Your business's internet presence can be found in many different mediums, from your websites through business platforms such as LinkedIn to social media such as Facebook and YouTube.
The problem in China is that many third-party platforms can not be seen.
All overseas social media is blocked. This also includes LinkedIn as of 2023.
Most business websites are not blocked in China. The few that are blocked usually share an IP address with a blacklist of website content.
The issue is that 80%+ of business websites trying to be seen cannot be opened, responded to slowly (over 30 seconds) or have content missing (typically social media).
This collection of articles helps you understand the issues of Being Seen in the world's largest online market.
Summary of ‘Being Seen in seen in China’ articles
There are many reasons why a website page is not seen in China. The most common reasons are straightforward to correct;
- Website IP address blocked
- Chinese Name services
- Load blocked service files from your local host server
- Social media files
- CDN services have poor performance in China
We recommend using our free web page testing tools to understand your business website response times in China and the parts of your web page that cannot be seen.
Internet presence in mainland China is the best way to be seen on the Internet in China, provided your Chinese hosting provider has access to all three major networks;
- China Telecom
- China Unicom (merge with China Netcom)
- China Mobile
Your choice of internet provider for hosting and connection heavily influences the performance of your internet content, website, social media, app, and more. Therefore, selecting the right provider inside and outside China is a critical decision that can significantly impact being seen in China.
Chinese name servers (DNS records hosted in China)
International DNS (Domain Name Server) records can take two to three attempts for a browser in China to locate your website.
We strongly recommend purchasing a domain from us or another local Chinese domain supplier to increase your website's visibility in China.
Domain names for the Chinese market
What domain is appropriate for the Chinese market?
In 2022, Chinese authorities will only allow Chinese companies to own Chinese TLDs. This did not affect Chinese domain ownership at this stage, given that Chinese business agents only own the Chinese TLDs. The problem today is that if you use the Chinese TLD for overseas business, the Chinese authorities can close the domain name.
There are many options available for domain names for the Chinese market.
Internet access in China (Article to follow ASAP)
The Internet in China has been very successful. The broadband is high-speed, and mobile coverage is national, with few “poor service” areas. A lot of the networks are G5.
The cost of using the Internet is comparable to that of European networks. The network costs for cloud services are between $1 and £12 per GB, depending on the service.
Overseas use of the internet can be restricted for overseas customers.
Chinese internet firewall
The Chinese authorities exercise strict control over the Internet's contents, encompassing websites, social media, apps, and more within China. This pervasive control, often referred to by the overseas press and businesses as the Great Chinese Firewall is a significant aspect of the Chinese internet landscape.
Although most business content is not directly affected, a website's content can have a significant impact.
Understanding how the Chinese internet firewall works will help you be seen in China.
GEO DNS and CDN Services
Geo DNS stands for Geographical Domain Name System. It is a DNS-based service that routes users to different servers or IP addresses based on geographical location.
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It is a network of servers distributed worldwide that efficiently delivers content to users, such as websites, videos, and other digital assets. CDNs reduce latency, improve load times, and enhance overall user experience by caching content closer to the end-users.
The use of QR codes in China
Chinese social media platforms ingeniously tackled the language barrier by employing QR codes. When scanned, these codes provide access to services through embedded, long, and complex passwords. Consequently, QR code scanning has become ubiquitous among Chinese social media users.
Today, we see QR codes everywhere in China. They have replaced domain names in marketing and sales, and businesses and people have replaced the writing of their internet links with QR codes.
Website looks and feels for the Chinese market
Chinese companies and consumers want to see overseas websites that look and feel like their local country. They do not want to see a Chinese-looking site that will question the genuine source of a product or service.
We recommend keeping your website's look and feel unchanged for the Chinese market, provided it has a responsive design and is displayed clearly on mobiles and tablets.
Translation of your business website
When entering an overseas market, the assumption is that your website must be translated. This has never been the case for the Chinese market.
Chinese people have always used translation software as required.
The SEO data needs translating: titles, web page descriptions, and headings. By only translating the minimum data required by the Chinese search engines in terms of costs and the overhead of maintaining your website in multiple languages,
Automatic translation
While automatic translations are improving, they are still not correct. Translation errors are often due to written English, local terms, or the lack of use of business international English.
A consumer will not know the source of language on your website, and errors in the language will reflect poorly on it. For many years, the Chinese have used local software for translation as required. In doing so, they know it is an automatic translation and does not reflect poorly on your website.
We recommend using automatic translation to review written English. Start by using an automatic translation into any second language you or a member of staff/family can read. When you find an error, go back to the English and make changes.
Chinese Multimedia
Multimedia has become more important than the written or spoken word.
For example, good multimedia is the difference between success and failure in the hospitality industry. The same can be said for most products and services.
Social media will create multimedia for your product and services, both good and bad. We recommend taking control from the outset and publishing your multimedia at the outset.
Chinese social media and e-Commerce (Article to follow ASAP)
Since around 2016, China has been developing social media and e-commerce platforms faster than anywhere else, which has led to social media and e-commerce becoming a single platform, e.g. WeChat, TikTok, etc.
Most/all international social media and e-commerce platforms are blocked in China. If you wish to talk and sell to the Chinese consumer market, you must be part of one or more platforms.
Access to these platforms is restricted for overseas people and businesses.
Emailing in China
Emailing in China, like in the rest of the world, is not the primary tool for communication. WeChat has replaced most emails since its launch in January 2011.
While most emails are encrypted end-to-end in transmission, they are usually not stored as encrypted files on servers or your mobile / PC. This leaves email vulnerable to hacking and being available to government agents worldwide.
Our recommendations will enable your business to access your email in China while maintaining a higher level of security.
Messaging in China
Messaging has many of the same problems as emailing in China.
We recommended opening a WeChat account for yourself or your business (creating a personal WeChat account is a more straightforward setup). Most Chinese businesses and staff use WeChat as their primary communication tool.
For example, when emailing in China, please remember to respect Chinese rules and regulations on messaging content.
APIs in China (Article to follow ASAP)
Mobile APIs were popular in China, so many mobile operating systems reached the limit on the number of APIs allowed. The WeChat platform, launched in January 2011, addressed this issue by allowing you to run APIs within the WeChat platform.
Today, APIs in China are often written as WeChat programs. By doing so, your API becomes part of WeChat's social media.
Today, APIs are used widely in China.
Up-to-date internet content
Determine what platform and channels you will use for public business information in the Chinese market: at minimum, set up a WeChat account.
Determine responsibility for maintaining this information.
Ensure the Chinese plans contain the time to update any information needed for the Chinese market.
Performance upgrades
Change recommendations to your website to enable your business to be seen in China.
While recommendations have been written to improve website performance in China, many apply to improving website performance anywhere in the world.
Please start by checking if your website is visible in China.
last modified: Version 2.5 - November 2024
