What licenses a platform needs: a comparison table and a decision table for choosing a server
This long piece goes with README Section 26. It holds only three tables and a few notes on the points most easily gotten wrong. The text of each item and the sources are in the README. For how to register a company and file taxes, see Section 12 (starting your own business). For the lines that employed technical staff must not cross, see Section 11 (programmers and technical people).
1. First decide which kind of business you are doing
A site often touches several kinds of business at once. If it touches several kinds, you need several licenses. You cannot pick just one.
| What you are doing | Business category | What is required | Main basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| An information site that takes no money, a personal blog, a company website | Non-commercial internet information service (非经营性互联网信息服务) | ICP filing (ICP 备案). It is not a license. It is a report to the competent authority before the site opens | Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services (互联网信息服务管理办法), Article 4 |
| Memberships, value-added services or paid content for which you charge users | Commercial internet information service (经营性互联网信息服务) | Value-added telecommunications business license (information services). It governs your charging users money | Same, Articles 3, 4 and 7 |
| Selling goods or services on your own website or app, with no one else setting up shop there; or running only a mini program, an official account or an online shop | The Guangdong Provincial Communications Administration says that, under the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, this is not a value-added telecommunications business | No value-added telecom license needed. Once you let others set up shops, follow the rows above and below | Guangdong Provincial Communications Administration, 2025 FAQ, first item |
| Matching buyers and sellers, and handling transactions and orders | Online data processing and transaction processing business (在线数据处理与交易处理业务) | Value-added telecommunications business license (B21). It governs your handling transactions for buyers and sellers | Telecommunications Business Classification Catalogue (电信业务分类目录), 2015 edition, B21 |
| Livestreaming with a host on camera, game livestreaming | Online performance (网络表演) | Network Culture Business License (网络文化经营许可证), with a business scope that includes online performance. Without it, the site cannot put hosts on camera | Measures for the Administration of Online Performance Business Activities (网络表演经营活动管理办法), Article 4 |
| Making your own video programs, or gathering programs from elsewhere, or letting users upload videos to the site | Internet audio-visual program service (互联网视听节目服务) | Information Network Audio-Visual Program Transmission License (信息网络传播视听节目许可证). It governs showing video programs on the site | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Audio-Visual Program Services (互联网视听节目服务管理规定), Articles 7 and 8 |
| Selling goods in a livestream | Online livestream marketing (网络直播营销) | Obtain the licenses that apply under the rows above. In addition, merchants must be verified and records kept | Measures for the Administration of Online Livestream Marketing (Trial) (网络直播营销管理办法（试行）), Article 8 |
| News and information | Internet news information service (互联网新闻信息服务) | Internet News Information Service License (互联网新闻信息服务许可证). Without it, the site cannot publish news | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Live Streaming Services (互联网直播服务管理规定), Article 5 |
| Running your own machine room to sell hosting or bandwidth | Internet data center business, internet access service business (互联网数据中心业务、互联网接入服务业务) | Value-added telecommunications business license (B11, B14). It governs your selling machine-room space and bandwidth to others | Telecommunications Business Classification Catalogue (电信业务分类目录), 2015 edition, B11, B14 |
Which license goes with which kind of livestream is stated most plainly in the 2021 guiding opinion of the seven departments: "Livestreaming platforms that carry out commercial online performance activities must hold the Network Culture Business License and complete ICP filing; livestreaming platforms that carry out online audio-visual program services must hold the Information Network Audio-Visual Program Transmission License (or complete registration in the national online audio-visual platform information registration management system) and complete ICP filing; livestreaming platforms that carry out internet news information services must hold the Internet News Information Service License."
There are three kinds of livestream. For a host performing, get the Network Culture Business License. For online audio-visual programs, get the Information Network Audio-Visual Program Transmission License, or complete registration in the national online audio-visual platform information registration management system. For news, get the Internet News Information Service License. The first two also need ICP filing.
Three points that are easy to get wrong
An individual cannot get a value-added telecom license. The first application condition says "the operator is a company established according to law". You need a company first, and an individual cannot apply with an ID card. A company operating only within its own province must have registered capital of no less than 1 million yuan; one operating across provinces, no less than 10 million yuan. After the materials are submitted, the review period is 60 days, and the license is valid for 5 years. To run a business that charges money, you must first set up the company. For how to set up a company, see Section 12 (starting your own business).
Private companies can basically not get the audio-visual program license. The application condition reads "has legal person status and is a wholly state-owned or state-controlled entity". It means this license is issued only to entities funded or controlled by the state. So an individual entrepreneur who makes long videos or self-made programs cannot get this license. To do livestreaming, what you need is the Network Culture Business License.
No official document says outright that "an e-commerce platform must get EDI". EDI here means the B21 category in the table above, whose formal name is online data processing and transaction processing business. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's service guide says only one sentence: "apply for the corresponding telecommunications business license according to how the business is defined". The Ministry has also replied separately on two occasions: a ride-hailing platform needs only a website filing, and a rights-type or bulk-commodity trading platform also needs only a website filing. So this piece only copies the original definition of B21. Whether your business should get it is for you and the local communications administration to judge. Before you start, call the local communications administration once and ask.
2. The platform's own daily duties
Getting the license only allows you to open. The following are things to do every day after you open. How large a fine you face for failing to do them is written in the items of Section 26.
| Duty | Hard measure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Verify and register the merchants who set up shops on your platform | Re-verify and update at least once every six months | Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions (网络交易监督管理办法), Article 24 |
| Report the merchants' identity information | Report to the market supervision authority every January and July | Same, Article 25 |
| Report tax-related information | Report to the tax authority within the month after the end of each quarter | Provisions on the Reporting of Tax-Related Information by Internet Platform Enterprises (互联网平台企业涉税信息报送规定), Article 4 |
| Keep transaction information | No less than three years from the day the transaction is completed | E-Commerce Law (电子商务法), Article 31 |
| Keep livestream content and logs | Sixty days | Provisions on the Administration of Internet Live Streaming Services (互联网直播服务管理规定), Article 16 |
| Keep videos of online performances | No less than sixty days | Measures for the Administration of Online Performance Business Activities (网络表演经营活动管理办法), Article 13 |
| Keep network logs | No less than six months | Cybersecurity Law (网络安全法), Article 23, item 3 |
| Handle infringement notices | Forward the merchant's statement to the complainant. If there is no word 15 days after forwarding, restore | E-Commerce Law (电子商务法), Article 43 |
| Set up a complaint and reporting entry | In a prominent position, easy to use | Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem (网络信息内容生态治理规定), Article 16 |
There are four sets of retention periods, and each is counted separately. Transaction information is kept three years, livestream content sixty days, and network logs six months. For the identity information of merchants on the platform, the period runs three years from the day the merchant leaves the platform. When you design storage, design to the longest one, not the shortest.
3. Choosing a server: how to pick among three tiers
Answer the questions below first, and only then compare prices.
| Question | If the answer is | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Can you bear the site being down for a day | Yes | The cheapest VPS (virtual server) is enough |
| Are there user sign-ups, transactions or uploads | Yes | Use a cloud host from a mainstream cloud provider. Pick one where you can back up the whole machine at any time and can add capacity temporarily |
| Is there someone dedicated to managing the servers | No | Do not host a whole physical machine in a machine room |
| Is bandwidth or hardware the largest cost, and is there someone dedicated to managing it | Yes | Only then consider hosting a whole machine in a machine room |
A small provider is not unusable, but check before you use it. Hosting machines in a machine room and providing internet access to others each require a license in themselves. They are value-added telecommunications businesses. To check, open the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's telecommunications business market integrated management information system, tsm.miit.gov.cn, and search once by the company's full name. If no license is found, rule it out directly. The risks of the kind that can be half the price are usually three: the machines are oversold, the owner runs off, or the upstream is blocked. If something really goes wrong, with a provider that holds a license you can still complain to the communications administration; with one that does not, you do not even know whom to appeal to.
Inside or outside the country. A server placed inside the country needs filing. Access providers may not provide access to sites that have not filed. Placing it outside the country does let you get around filing. But your users are inside the country, and the money you collect is inside the country too. The platform duties written in Section 26, items 5 to 10, cannot be dropped, not one of them. Placing it outside also adds one more layer of cost, data leaving the country. Sending the personal information of users inside the country to a machine outside is what counts as leaving the country. To do so you must meet one of the four conditions listed in Article 38 of the Personal Information Protection Law. You must also obtain the person's separate consent, which cannot be mixed into a package agreement that people click through together. How many people are involved is counted "cumulatively from 1 January of the current year". Under 100,000 people, none of the three routes below needs to be taken. From 100,000 to 1 million people, either sign the standard contract or go through certification. At 1 million people or more, you must apply for a security assessment.
Backups. Keep backups in at least two places, and do not put both copies with the same provider in the same region. There is no regulation behind this point. It is purely experience.
4. The limits of this material
- For all the provisions mentioned above, the source column of Section 26 of this book's README controls. It has the document numbers, article numbers and links.
- Rules of this kind change very fast. This section was verified in September 2026. Before you actually cite anything, open the original page again yourself. Look in particular at two points: the article numbers of the Cybersecurity Law were adjusted from 1 January 2026; and the rules on minors in livestream tipping were changed in April 2026 to tiers by age.
- On several points the original text could not be obtained, and this is stated one by one in the verification record. One point is whether an e-commerce platform must in fact get EDI, and whether the authorities have said so in writing. The other is the judicial interpretation that treats running online culture or audio-visual services without a license directly as the crime of illegal business operation.