Why does a website need a filing, and can you build one without it? It is one of the questions clients raise most often, and the answer depends entirely on where the site is hosted.
What the filing is
To regulate internet information services, and under State Council Order No. 292 (Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services) and MIIT Order No. 33 (Measures for the Administration of Filing for Non-Commercial Internet Information Services), China licenses commercial internet information services and requires non-commercial ones to file. Operating an internet information service without a licence or a completed filing is not permitted.
Why a business needs one
A corporate website exists to build a brand or to sell a product or service, so the filing is less about compliance paperwork than about credibility: information published under a filing is traceable, and traceability is what customers are being asked to trust. In practice it works both ways — the site is answerable for what it publishes, and the customer can check that the company is real. A business with no filing struggles to earn that trust, and a deal is hard to reach without it.
How long it takes
Hosting on a mainland server requires the filing, and it takes seven to twenty working days. The site cannot go live until it clears, so the sensible sequence is to start the filing early — either before commissioning the build, or after talking the requirements through but before buying the server. Having someone who has done it before check the setup saves a rejection and a fortnight.
One point worth knowing for a Hong Kong-facing site: the requirement attaches to the hosting, not to the company. A site served from Hong Kong does not need a mainland filing, which is why businesses working both markets usually keep the two sites separate rather than trying to run one from a single host.
XZS Tech is a Shenzhen-based development company. We build custom mini programs, WeChat and mobile apps, e-commerce systems and corporate websites, covering requirement analysis, design, development and after-sales support, and we hand over the source code at delivery.
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