The ICP License in China

What is an ICP License

ICP License stands for Internet Content Provider License, and it is issued by the Ministry of Industrial and Information Technology in China, and the license is required in order host web sites as well as any form of ecommerce operations in mainland China.

ICP License information is publicly available on MIIT (Ministry of Industrial and Information Technology).

Types of ICP Licenses

Depending on the content and services provided on the site, different ICP licenses may be required.

ICP备 (Bei’an)

The simplest one is the ICP备 (pronounced as “bei” and can be referred as “Bei’an”), which applies to every single generic web sites hosted in the country. If you do not have an ICP备 license filing, your domain name will not be resolved to your designated server, and instead, a warning page asking you to aquire an ICP license will be shown (depending on different hosting service providers).

If your site does have an ICP备 license but does not have it displayed on the site, or displayed in the incorrect format, your site may get blocked once it’s found.

Commercial ICP License

If you’re operating business online, thus receiving online payments, a Commercial ICP License will be required. The commercial ICP is categorized into a dozen sub domains for different types of businesses. For example, the B25 ICP license for receiving online payments, and B21 ICP license (EDI type) for online shopping platforms etc, and it does take a lot more efforts and time to apply for it. Furthermore, this particular license is only available for Chinese domestic companies and Joint Ventures where foreign owners do not own more than 49% of the company, as a result, and very unfortunately, a WOFE is not entitled to apply for a Commercial ICP License in China.

The Commercial ICP License does not only apply to business operated on websites, but also extand to other forms of online businesses, such as Mobile App or WeChat Mini Program, where online payments are involved.

Need help with the commercial ICP License? Contact us to discuss your options.

How are the ICP rules regulated

The ICP License rules are regulated at the service provider level, when a website or online service is introduced to the market. In China, all cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure and Aliyun are required to enfore the ICP rules at an entrance level. Most of the service providers would provide an ICP registration system which facilitates their users to apply or modify ICP related data associated with them. The Service providers will review the application or modification requests first, based on government requirements, and pass them on to the regional ministry once no problems are found. And the ministry will then decide if or not to pass the application.

On the mobile application side, the control is passed down to different app stores which distribute mobile apps or mini programs to the users. If IAP features are involved in a mobile app, the developer or publisher will be required to submit a copy of the relavent commercial ICP license as a part of the documents needed in order to publish the app. Otherwise the app (with IAP features) will not pass the app stores’ approval process.

Please note though, no commercial ICP license is needed if your mobile app does not have IAP features involved.

Do I need the ICP License?

ICP licenses only apply to web sites that are HOSTED in mainland China, so if your site is not hosted on a server located in the mainland China, you do not need an ICP server.

You may argue that my site is hosted somewhere else in the world, so why would I bother with an ICP license in China?

Well, that’s true, if your servers are hosted somewhere else and you don’t have anything to do with the users in the mainland China, you don’t need to worry about it at all. However, if you do want to maintain a stable accessibility for your online services to the Chinese mainland users, you might as well consider getting an ICP license for it. And here is why:

1. Unlike elsewhere in the world, the Internet connectivity to servers out side of the country relies heavily on the government policies, many websites as well as associated online services are blocked in China. One of the famous example is Google. Google search engine as well as most of Google’s other services like Google Mail, Fonts, Maps etc are all blocked in the mainland.
2. Eventhough your site is currently accessible in China, users may periodically experience serious latency issues, especially during seasonal sensor period and other unperdictable sensitive times.
3. When your site is currently accessible in China, there is still no guarantee that it won’t be blocked in the future. And if a site does get picked up and blocked in the country for whatever reasons, there is currently no process in place where companies could go and apeal. So there is practically no way to have a site “unblocked”.
4. And finally, having relavent ICP licenses for your online businesses is a good thing to do afterall, because it does not only meet the legal requirements, but also helps you secure a continuous and reliable online presence in the Chinese online market.

ICP Licence applications

The application process for ICP licenses is quite straight forward, but it does require a lot of administrative work. And in terms of application requirements, the following itesm will be required in order to apply for an ICP license:

1. Domain name which is registered with a Chinese domestic service provider.
2. Web site which is to be published.
3. A China based business entity (WOFE entitled to ICP备, but not commercial ICP).
4. A China based contact person.
5. Forms and documents required by the authority.

During the application process, both business entity and the contact person will need to be strictly verified. For instance, in order to verify the contact person, a photo with the contact person in front of a specific background provided by the service provider is required as part of the application documentation.

For commercial ICP license application, the reuqirements are higher than the basic Bei’an ICP license, for example, it requires the applicant company to have at least 3 employees and the ready-to-go ecommerce site needs to be set up with content etc. And regarding timeframe, the commercial ICP license application can take 4 – 5 calendar months.