TL;DR - Wistia is not officially blocked in mainland China and most Wistia-hosted videos can be delivered to viewers there, but performance can be inconsistent without China-specific optimizations. Wistia serves media via multiple global CDNs and its player library (E-v1.js) from Wistia domains, but cross-border latency and third-party resources on your page can cause slow or incomplete loading in mainland China. A near-China or China CDN improves delivery proximity but doesn’t fix incompatibilities with third-party resources. Chinafy can detect and handle slow or blocked resources and route China traffic to a synchronized, China-optimized version of your site, helping your pages load fast and fully.

What is Wistia?

Wistia is a video-marketing platform for uploading, customizing, and embedding videos with a customizable player and analytics. Embeds rely on the Wistia player script and/or an iframe embed served from Wistia’s domains.

Note: Wistia cautions not to self-host E-v1.js as it’s updated frequently and static copies can break embeds.

Does Wistia work in mainland China?

Most Wistia videos are able to deliver in and outside of China, though some features may behave differently or face performance issues. Wistia states it uses “several top-tier global CDNs” to deliver media worldwide, which helps but doesn’t eliminate cross-border constraints into China.

Why pages using Wistia struggle in China

The two primary reasons why web pages using Wistia often perform poorly in mainland China are:

Cross-border latency & packet loss: When media and player assets are fetched from outside China (Wistia uses AWS non-China locations for hosting by default), the distance and China’s unique network restrictions increase RTT and timeouts so players and pages can stall.

Third-party dependencies: As well as Wistia embeds, websites often also load other third-party resources that are slow or inaccessible in China, causing incomplete page loads even when the video itself can stream.

Wistia player and embed domains: Typical embeds load from Wistia domains like fast.wistia.com, fast.wistia.net and related endpoints (E-v1.js, iframe), which can sometimes be blocked. Wistia does not provide any China-specific advice, but suggests allowlisting their domains (e.g., *.wistia.com, fast.wistia.net, embed-fastly.wistia.com, embed-cloudfront.wistia.com, embedwistia-a.akamaihd.net).

How to make Wistia work in China

To make websites or landing pages work in mainland China, there are two key components to consider: its infrastructure and its code.

On the infrastructure side, a near-China or China-based CDN can improve loading speeds as static assets will be delivered from a node closer to the end user. However, as is the case with onshore hosting, a China CDN only solves part of the problem with cross-border China web performance. A CDN, no matter the locations of its Points of Presence (PoPs), does not handle third-party resources on the code-based side, which are often the primary technical reason why pages using Wistia perform poorly in mainland China.

Chinafy offers a solution to make your website work faster and fuller in mainland China.

Here’s how Chinafy works:

Generates a version of your website/landing page for China visitors without affecting your current site.

Combines both in-person and platform-level features to detect and replace blocked or slow resources that cause loading delays.

If you're hosting offshore, Chinafy routes China-IP-based traffic to the China-optimized version of your site. If you're already hosting onshore, all your traffic will see the optimized version for China visitors.

Chinafy then keeps your China-optimized site in sync with your global one, so any content changes are reflected accordingly.

Note: Chinafy does not work with websites that are officially blocked or inaccessible in China.

How to check your website from China

Use Chinafy’s Global Speed Test or Visual Speed Test to benchmark pages from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou versus global regions. Track TTFB and page-complete times, then re-run after optimization to validate improvements.

When you need an ICP filing or commercial license

Businesses differ in terms of its requirements when operating or marketing to mainland China, with variables including industry, information collection and more. Specific to hosting in China, an ICP filing or license is legally required if you host or use any servers inside of mainland China or use a China-based CDN. This requirement applies to any website that is physically hosted within China or utilizes China-based infrastructure, regardless of the tech stack being used.

Video content sensitivity in China

*Disclaimer: This guide is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Chinafy is not a legal or corporate advisory entity, and, given that every business is different, we suggest consulting with your internal legal counsel if you would like advice on any legal or compliance-related concerns, or alternatively we can connect you with one of our partners.

Regardless of the video platform you use, if you’re serving videos to users in mainland China, it’s important that you take into account differences in content sensitivity. Content that contains restricted themes (for example, adult, gambling, drugs, weapons, extremist) could be restricted or taken down completely due to unique and evolving regulations. If you’re concerned about the video content you’re sharing to Chinese users, you may wish to consult advice from local experts.

Wistia is not blocked in China and can deliver video to visitors in China, but reliability often depends on cross-border delivery paths and use of third-party resources beyond just Wistia. Chinafy can remediate code-level incompatibilities so pages using Wistia, and your website as a whole, loads fast and fully for mainland visitors.

If you’re looking for ways to make your website or landing pages work in mainland China, contact Chinafy for a website evaluation.