Many organisations learn about China’s digital ecosystem the hard way: months after launching their website, with a compromised user experience and reputational damage to their brand. 

This is the moment when ambition collides with digital reality. And it’s why China needs deliberate consideration when delivering a truly global digital experience.

Two specialists with a shared philosophy

SampsonMay, an independent, award-winning design and digital experience agency based in London, works with listed and private global businesses to build sophisticated websites, shape compelling brands, and deliver immersive digital experiences that drive measurable outcomes. Recognised with multiple industry accolades, including wins at the Corporate and Financial Awards, Digital Impact Awards, and Lens Awards, SampsonMay combines creativity, data, and technology to help organisations translate strategy into high-performing digital platforms.

Chinafy complements SampsonMay’s digital delivery by addressing one of the most persistent challenges facing global brands: performance and accessibility in Mainland China. Many platforms engineered for the UK, Europe or North America struggle in China due to slow or blocked third-party services and infrastructure latency. Rather than an expensive rebuild, Chinafy applies infrastructure and code-based optimisations to existing websites, ensuring they perform in Beijing as reliably as they do in Boston.

Why is China different?

China is a fundamentally different digital ecosystem that demands a specific approach – including after your website has been built.

Hosting and content delivery decisions that work perfectly well for most of the world can fall short in China. And third-party services we all rely on without thinking – like font libraries and YouTube videos – may be slow to load or blocked entirely, introducing delays that kill user experience. Addressing these considerations late in delivery with chaotic technical firefighting or a complete rebuild will compromise the creative vision.

In practice, many organisations only fully encounter these challenges after launch. Performance issues surface through analytics, user feedback, or stalled growth in China, often after significant investment has been made elsewhere. This is where Chinafy’s optimisation layer plays a critical role. Rather than requiring a rebuild, Chinafy enables existing websites to be optimised for China, even when China wasn’t part of the original brief. Optimising without compromising is what allows performance to become part of the strategy conversation, whenever you’re ready to have it.

Performance as strategy

The partnership between SampsonMay and Chinafy rests on the premise that performance and creativity should be allies, not afterthoughts.

When infrastructure constraints inform design decisions, design systems can be aligned for long-term sustainability. UX choices reflect real-world conditions rather than ideal-world assumptions. Stunning digital experiences that actually work everywhere in the world.

By combining SampsonMay’s design and delivery expertise with Chinafy’s web performance platform, performance gets treated as a foundational element rather than a constraint to work around. Digital investments become future-proof, and organisations can expand into one of the world’s most complex and valuable digital markets with confidence instead of crossed fingers.

What we’re saying is that planning for global performance isn’t even just a competitive advantage anymore, nor a nice-to-have. The best digital experience in the world is worthless if it never loads.

Whether you’re planning a new website or optimising an existing one for China, get started now for a digital strategy that takes China into account.