Intro to China: Where there’s a wall, there’s a way

Image credit: Unsplash

You may have heard of the Great Wall of China – but have you heard of the Great Firewall?

First established in 2003 as part of the Golden Shield Project, the ‘Great Firewall’ is the everyday name for a combination of legislation and technology used by the government to control and censor the internet within mainland China. The firewall blocks residents from accessing certain sites and apps, and only provides partial access to others. Websites blocked by the firewall include Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Netflix, YouTube, and any foreign media outlet.  

Many of these Western platforms have a Chinese equivalent which is commonly used instead. Baidu is used instead of Google, WeChat replaces WhatsApp, and YouKu is considered the Chinese version of YouTube.

What does this mean for you?

If you are a company or brand outside of mainland China attempting to connect digitally with those within mainland China, the Great Firewall poses several challenges.

Your website may be inaccessible

Firstly, your website may be inaccessible to internet users within China - you can check here. Even if it is accessible, it will be slow to load and may only partially load due to:

• The physical distance between where your site is hosted and internet users in mainland China

• The time it takes for your website to ‘filter’ through the firewall

• Certain website elements not making it through the ‘filter’, including:

  • Content which is deemed ‘inappropriate’

  • Google Fonts used for typography

  • Content embedded from blocked sites like YouTube

  • Google Maps to show business location

  • Links to the Google Play Store for app downloads

  • Google APIs used for back-end monitoring

  • Embedded buttons enabling visitors to like and share content to social media

Your content will need to be adapted

Secondly, if your marketing strategy relies on SEO, PPC and social media content creation, it will need adapting and translating for Chinese search engines and social media platforms.

It’s entirely possible that your brand will need adapting as well – we’ll come back to that in a later blog.

You need Chinese media licensing

Thirdly, to host your website in mainland China, to optimise it for Chinese search engines and to get set up on many Chinese social media platforms, you will need to obtain the necessary media licenses. This is nigh on impossible if you’re not a Chinese native or you don’t have a Chinese business entity.

Where there’s a wall… there’s a way!

The solution to many of these challenges lies in finding a trustworthy and reliable digital partner in mainland China.

Appt is one of only a handful of UK-based digital agencies with a legal presence in mainland China, which means we’re able to help you to work around the challenges we’ve outlined above.

We can help you:

• Host your website in mainland China

• Obtain the necessary media licenses and a .CN domain

• Optimise your website for Chinese search engines

• Get set up on Chinese social media platforms

• Develop your digital strategy

• Overcome the language barrier by providing services in both English and Chinese

We love using our digital, cultural and techie know-how to connect people and businesses with the exciting and growing Chinese market.  

To speak to one of our China advisors – get in touch today!