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21CloudBox

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Does Sitecore Work in China?

In this article, we will walk you through some speed tests we conducted to verify that if Sitecore works in China or not. Our staff conducted the tests in Shanghai (China Mainland) and (Macau, outside Mainland China) and we used 3rd party testing tools to ensure our tests weren’t biased. By the end of this article, you have a good understanding of if Sitecore works in Mainland China or not, also you can contact us to get a free speed test of your Sitecore site for China.

What is Sitecore?

Sitecore is the leading headless Enterprise CMS (Content Management Systems), and the leading Digital Experience Platform (“DXP”) by Gartner Magic Quadrant 2021.

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Does Sitecore Work in China?

The short answer is no.

Below is the long answer if you want to understand why:

  1. Most hosting providers claim to have Global coverage for your Sitecore, but actually, China is not included.

  2. If your business didn’t have any legal licenses for your site and content in China, your Sitecore is operating illegally in China.

Luckily we have put together solutions for you to make your business and your Sitecore site work in China.

Don't just take our words. Let's look at some websites powered by Sitecore and see how well they work in China.


How do we check if a website works in China or not?

There are two checks we need to perform to conclude if a website works in China.

  1. How fast is the site in Mainland China?
  2. If your business doesn’t have any legal licenses for your site and content in China, it is operating illegally in China.

Speed Tests Results

We picked 5 websites from Sitecore Global Customers and considered these websites to follow the best practices powered by Sitecore.

Then we follow the test questions mentioned earlier for each website and create a report with the following format:

1. A figure to see how fast the site performs across Mainland China.

This figure basically shows how fast the website loads across Mainland China (green = fast, red=slow)



2. A video to see how the site performance in China visually.

We made a screen record of the website loading in Shanghai, China. This provides you with an intuitive way to see how fast the site visually loads and understand what people in China actually experience when they visit the website.



3. A yes-no check to see if the site complied with the laws in China.

If the site passes the legal check, it's a green check. If it doesn't pass, we will tell you why it doesn't pass.

Now, let's dive into the reports for each of the selected websites using Sitecore.


MyStays Hotel Management, www.mystays.com

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MyStays Hotel Management is the 3rd largest hotel management company in Japan, overseeing 85 properties.

From our speed test, people in China have difficulty viewing the images on the MyStays Hotel Management website. (that’s what the below figure means, red means unable to display images).

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Here is a more intuitive way to see it, we screen-recorded the process when a user browses MyStays website in Shanghai, click the video below to see it in action:

Does the MyStays Hotel Management website comply with the laws in China?

No. It doesn't pass our Legal check because the business does not have an ICP license displayed at the footer of their website.

If you don't know what an ICP license is, click to learn more.

Finding if a website has an ICP license is pretty straightforward, just scroll to the bottom of the page, if you see a number like this (see below Nike's websites for China), then the business behind the website has an ICP for China. If not, they don't have it. You can check if your website has it or not.

Below is an example of Nike's website in China, and its ICP number.

Nike's ICP no for China


Similarly, we ran the same tests for the rest of the Sitecore user's websites. To see the full case studies, just click on the brand name below:






Millennium Hotels and Resorts, www.millenniumhotels.com

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Millennium Hotels and Resorts owns and manages hotels in over 27 countries—treating.

Click here to see Millennium Hotels and Resorts' full case study.






Purina Australia, www.purina.com.au

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Nestlé Purina Petcare, or simply Purina, is an American subsidiary of Nestlé, based in St. Louis, Missouri. It is a PetCare Company. It produces and markets pet food, treats, and cat litter.

Click here to see Purina's case study results.






Eisai, www.eisai.com

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Eisai is a global pharmaceuticals company. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It has some 10,000 employees, among them about 1,500 in research. Eisai is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a member of the Topix 100 and Nikkei 225 stock indices.

Click here to see Eisai's case study results.




Need Sitecore to Work in China?

In short, if your business is going to China, make sure your website passes the two tests we mentioned above to have a fast speed of first load and good viewing and browsing quality for your users in China.

Reducing page load time by 0.1 seconds will increase the conversion rate by 8%. - Google, Deloitte

If you need to get Sitecore working in China, feel free to contact us or click here to get started.






*For additional detail and future modifications, refer the original post.

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