Running an online platform in China: licenses, ongoing duties, and hosting choices
This guide accompanies chapter 26. It brings together three decision tables and the points most easily misunderstood. The individual entries in that chapter contain the full references. For company formation and tax filing, see chapter 12, “Starting and running a business.” For boundaries that employed developers and technical staff need to understand, see chapter 11.
The licenses and legal requirements below concern mainland China. They are not a licensing checklist for other countries.
1. Work out which activities your platform actually carries out
A single website can fall into several regulated categories. If several categories apply, one license does not necessarily cover them all.
| What you do | Regulatory category | What is required | Main authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run a free information site, personal blog, or company website | Noncommercial internet information services | An ICP filing: a registration with the regulator before launch, rather than an operating license | Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, article 4 |
| Charge users for membership, added services, or content | Commercial internet information services | A value-added telecommunications business license covering information services | The same Measures, articles 3, 4, and 7 |
| Connect buyers with sellers and process transactions or orders | Online data processing and transaction processing | A value-added telecommunications business license in category B21 | Telecommunications Business Classification Catalogue, 2015 edition, B21 |
| Host performers on livestreams or offer game livestreaming | Online performances | An Internet Culture Business License whose approved scope includes online performances | Measures for the Administration of Online Performance Business Activities, article 4 |
| Produce video programs, aggregate programs from elsewhere, or allow users to upload videos | Internet audiovisual program services | A License for Disseminating Audiovisual Programs through Information Networks | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Audiovisual Program Services, articles 7 and 8 |
| Sell goods through livestreams | Livestream marketing | The licenses applicable to the activities above, plus merchant verification and recordkeeping | Measures for the Administration of Livestream Marketing (Trial), article 8 |
| Provide news information | Internet news information services | An Internet News Information Service License | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Livestreaming Services, article 5 |
| Operate a data center and sell hosting or connectivity | Internet data center services and internet access services | A value-added telecommunications business license in categories B11 and B14 | Telecommunications Business Classification Catalogue, 2015 edition, B11 and B14 |
The guidance issued by seven Chinese authorities in 2021 distinguishes three types of livestreaming. Platforms conducting commercial online performances need an Internet Culture Business License and an ICP filing. Platforms providing internet audiovisual programs need an audiovisual dissemination license, or registration in the national online audiovisual platform information system, as well as an ICP filing. Platforms providing internet news information need an Internet News Information Service License.
In practical terms, start with what the stream contains: a performance, an audiovisual program, or news. The first two categories also require ICP filing; calling everything “livestreaming” does not make the licensing requirements interchangeable.
Three common misunderstandings
An individual cannot apply for a value-added telecommunications license in their own name. The first eligibility requirement is that the operator be a legally established company. An identity card alone is not enough. A company operating within one province must have registered capital of at least RMB 1 million; one operating across provinces must have at least RMB 10 million. The review period after submission is 60 days, and the license lasts five years. If your planned paid service requires this license, company formation comes first. Chapter 12 covers that process.
The audiovisual program license is generally out of reach for an ordinary privately owned startup. The stated eligibility condition is a legal entity that is wholly state-owned or state-controlled. An individual founder planning a long-form video or original-program platform should not assume this license is available. For livestreamed online performances, the relevant route is the Internet Culture Business License; the actual service still determines the category.
The cited official material does not establish a blanket rule that every e-commerce platform must obtain an EDI license. “EDI” refers to the B21 category in the table, formally online data processing and transaction processing. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) instructs applicants to apply for the telecommunications license corresponding to their business classification. In two separate replies, it said that ride-hailing platforms and platforms for rights-based or bulk-commodity transactions only needed website filing. Whether your particular model falls within B21 therefore requires a classification decision, not a slogan. Before applying, call the communications administration for the place where your company is registered and describe exactly how the service works.
2. Duties that continue after launch
A license allows you to begin operating. The following obligations recur throughout the life of the platform. Chapter 26 sets out the penalties associated with the individual requirements.
| Duty | Required interval or retention period | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Verify and register merchants trading on your platform | Recheck and update at least once every six months | Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions, article 24 |
| Report merchants’ identity information | Submit to the market regulation authority each January and July | The same Measures, article 25 |
| Report tax-related information | Submit to the tax authority within the month following each quarter | Provisions on the Reporting of Tax-Related Information by Internet Platform Enterprises, article 4 |
| Keep transaction information | At least three years from completion of the transaction | E-Commerce Law, article 31 |
| Keep livestream content and logs | 60 days | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Livestreaming Services, article 16 |
| Keep recordings of online performances | At least 60 days | Measures for the Administration of Online Performance Business Activities, article 13 |
| Keep network logs | At least six months | Cybersecurity Law, article 23(3) |
| Handle infringement notices and merchants’ counterstatements | Forward the merchant’s statement to the complainant; if no notice of further action arrives within 15 days, lift the measures taken | E-Commerce Law, article 43 |
| Provide a complaints and reporting channel | Make it prominent and easy to use | Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem, article 16 |
Different records have different clocks. Transaction information is kept for three years; livestream content for 60 days; network logs for six months. A merchant’s identity information must be retained for three years after that merchant leaves the platform. Design retention by record type and the longest applicable requirement, rather than applying the shortest period to everything.
3. Choosing hosting: a practical decision table
Answer these questions before comparing prices.
| Question | If your answer is… | A sensible starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Could you tolerate the site being unavailable for a day? | Yes | A low-cost virtual private server (VPS) may be enough |
| Will users register, transact, or upload content? | Yes | A virtual machine from an established cloud provider, with whole-machine backups and flexible capacity |
| Is someone specifically responsible for server administration? | No | Avoid colocating your own physical server in a data center |
| Are bandwidth or hardware your largest costs? | Yes, and you have someone to maintain the system | This is when colocation may be worth considering |
Check a smaller provider’s credentials before using it. Data-center hosting and internet access provision are themselves licensed value-added telecommunications businesses in China. Search MIIT’s telecommunications market management system at tsm.miit.gov.cn using the provider’s full legal company name. If the required license cannot be found, rule the provider out. A dramatically cheaper offer may involve oversold hardware, an operator that disappears, or an upstream connection that gets blocked. With a licensed provider, you have a route to complain to the communications administration; with an unlicensed one, even identifying a useful point of redress may be difficult.
Hosting in mainland China versus overseas. A mainland-hosted site needs the applicable filing, and access providers cannot connect an unfiled site. Overseas hosting may avoid that hosting-related filing requirement, but it does not remove your platform obligations when your users and business are in mainland China. The duties in chapter 26, entries 5–10 still need to be considered.
Overseas hosting can also create cross-border data obligations: sending a mainland user’s personal information to an overseas server is a data export. The Personal Information Protection Law requires one of the conditions in article 38 to be met, and separate consent cannot simply be buried in a bundled agreement. The source describes the following volume thresholds, counted cumulatively from January 1 of the current year: for covered exports of nonsensitive personal information, below 100,000 individuals, none of the three volume-triggered procedures; from 100,000 to below 1 million, a standard contract or certification; 1 million or more, a security assessment. The below-100,000 exemption does not cover sensitive personal information, and important-data rules are separate. These are a simplified decision aid, not an exhaustive statement of exemptions or rules for sensitive personal information and important data.
Backups. Keep copies in at least two locations, and do not put both in the same region with the same provider. This is practical experience rather than a statutory requirement cited here.
4. Scope and verification limits
- The source fields in chapter 26 contain the document numbers, article numbers, and links supporting these tables.
- These rules change quickly. The source material was checked in September 2026; reopen the original text before relying on it for an actual application. In particular, the Cybersecurity Law’s article numbering changed from January 1, 2026, and rules on minors’ livestream tips changed to age-based bands in April 2026.
- The original source’s verification notes identify material it could not establish from the original text. This includes whether an official provision explicitly requires EDI licensing for all e-commerce platforms, and the judicial interpretation said to treat unlicensed internet culture or audiovisual operations directly as the crime of illegal business operation.