Most websites that charge need a license; selling only your own goods, without letting others open a shop, does not; matching a trade is another license; a free site only needs filing

A website that charges users mostly has to get a value-added telecommunications business license first, and an individual cannot apply for it. The Guangdong Communications Administration answered: if you only sell goods on your own website or app, and you do not let others open a shop there, you do not need it. If you only run a mini program or an online shop on WeChat or Alipay, you do not need it either. If you open a paid site without the license you should have, the income is confiscated and a fine is added, and a serious case means the site is shut.

Cost

Filing costs nothing. A value-added telecommunications business license costs money. It governs whether a website that charges users may open. You need a company before you can apply for it. For business only inside a single province, the registered capital is at least 1000000 yuan. For business across provinces, it is at least 10000000 yuan. The review period is 60 days, and the license is valid for 5 years.

Benefit

The regulation says: "The state implements a licensing system for commercial internet information services, and a filing system for non-commercial internet information services. Without a license, or without completing the filing, internet information services may not be provided." A site that charges has to get the license first. A site that does not charge has to file first. Without either of the 2, the site cannot open. What counts as commercial? The regulation says it is "providing information, web-page production, or similar services to internet users for a fee through the internet." In short, charging the user. The kind that matches a trade is called online data processing and transaction processing. In the trade it is shortened to EDI. The regulation defines it as "using data and transaction or business-processing application platforms connected to the public communications network or the internet, to provide users with online data processing and transaction or business processing through the public communications network or the internet." It also "includes transaction-processing services, electronic data interchange services, and network or electronic-device data-processing services." That means the website processes data online for the user, or matches both sides of a sale and processes the transaction. Operating without the license, or operating beyond its scope, means the illegal gains are confiscated, and a fine of 3 to 5 times the illegal gains is added. Operating beyond the scope means you have the license, but what you do goes past what the license writes. If there are no illegal gains, or the illegal gains are under 50000 yuan, the fine is 100000 to 1000000 yuan. In a serious case, the website is ordered closed (nationwide). Charging money does not always mean you must get the license. A question-and-answer issued by the Guangdong Communications Administration in October (10) 2025 says that, under a requirement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the 3 cases below do not need this license. Case 1: a company, on its own website or app, "directly sells its own goods or services, or those of another company, in a self-operated way," and no other unit or individual opens a shop there. Case 2: a company posts only its own information on its own website or app, and does not provide other people with a platform for posting information. Case 3: a company does business only through mini programs, official accounts, video accounts, or online shops on platforms such as WeChat and Alipay, "and has no other independently operated platform." The other way around: as soon as you let others open a shop, or let users post information here, you are outside these 3 cases.

Notes

Whether what you want to do is the EDI kind, you match it yourself against the definition in the Classification Catalogue of Telecommunications Services. No official sentence states outright that "an e-commerce platform with matching and fund handling must get an EDI license." The Ministry's guide for applicants only says "apply for the corresponding telecommunications business license according to how the service is defined." So whether to apply can only be judged from the definition. Another point: an individual cannot get this license. The applicant must be a company established according to law. The 3 cases where self-operated business does not need the license come from the Guangdong Communications Administration's question-and-answer. It says this follows a requirement of the Ministry, but the same public wording was not found in other provinces. If you are not sure, call the communications administration where you are first. That question-and-answer also reminds you that you do not need an agent to apply. You submit the materials only on the Ministry's "comprehensive management information system for the telecommunications-services market," and the authority does not charge a fee.

Sources · 5

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