File if the server sits inside China; file an app and a mini program before they are listed; the access provider must itself hold a value-added telecommunications license

If the server sits inside China, you have to file before the site opens. It costs nothing, and it usually takes a few days to a few weeks. Without filing you are first ordered to correct and fined 10000 yuan, and if you do not correct, the site is shut. An app and a mini program also have to be filed first. Without filing, the app store and the mini-program platform are not allowed to list you.

Cost

Filing costs nothing. You submit it together with the server, at the service provider, and you usually wait a few days to a few weeks. Filing for an app or a mini program is submitted through the service provider or the app store, and it is finished within 20 working days once the materials are complete. Checking once whether the service provider has the qualification takes 10 minutes.

Benefit

The regulation says: "Without filing, non-commercial internet information services may not be provided inside the People's Republic of China." A website that does not charge users still has to file first, as long as it is placed inside China. Without filing, you are ordered to correct within a time limit, and fined 10000 yuan. If you refuse to correct, the website is closed. The provider that connects your server to the network is also regulated. It "may not provide internet access services for an organization or an individual that has not filed and that engages in non-commercial internet information services." A provider that collects money for you is the same. The regulation says this kind of provider "may not provide access, collection of fees on behalf of others, or similar services to a unit or an individual that has not lawfully obtained an operating license or completed the filing for non-commercial internet information services." That means a regular provider is not allowed to connect a site that has neither a license nor a filing. Also, colocation and a cloud server are called internet data center services in the regulation, and broadband access is called an internet access service. These 2 themselves require a license. The provider has to hold the license first. If the website homepage does not show the filing number, you are ordered to correct, and fined 5000 to 50000 yuan. From September (9) 2023, apps and mini programs also have to be filed. A notice from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says that the sponsor of an app providing services inside China "may not engage in app internet information services if the filing has not been completed." Distribution platforms include mini-program platforms. The notice requires app stores, mini-program platforms, and phone makers "not to provide network access, distribution, pre-installation, or similar services for an app that has not completed the filing." Once a provincial communications administration receives complete and accurate materials, it "shall complete the filing within 20 working days." The filing number has to be shown in a prominent place in the app. The Anti-Telecom and Online Fraud Law also states that setting up an app "shall go through licensing or filing with the telecommunications authority in accordance with the relevant state provisions" (nationwide).

Notes

Before you talk price, check whether the service provider has the license. Look it up in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's comprehensive management information system for the telecommunications-services market, at tsm.miit.gov.cn, by the company's full name or by the license number. Look up a website filing at beian.miit.gov.cn. A "machine room" without the matching license leaves you, on the day something goes wrong, not even knowing whom to appeal to. If the website is already filed, the app filing only adds the app's information. You do not fill in the sponsor's identity again. Putting the website's machines abroad does get around website filing, but an app you want listed in a domestic app store cannot get around it. If the users are inside China and the money is inside China, not 1 of the duties written in this section, item 5 through this section, item 10 drops away, and a further cost of sending data abroad is added on top.

Sources · 5

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