Your website is often the first place where prospective customers, automotive enthusiasts, dealers, and brand partners learn about your vehicles, services, and brand identity.
If your website is slow or inaccessible in China (like over 90% of global websites) you could be excluding prospective customers or local partners who want to stay connected.
Slow loading times or non-functional pages negatively impacts the intended user experience and creates a poor first impression of your brand’s reliability and technological sophistication.
This guide will explore why your automotive website might not work in China, and what you can do to optimize it for the Chinese market.
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.
TL;DR
China compatibility: Over 90% of global websites load slowly in China, if at all, and are often missing key functionality like forms, videos, and more.
Primary obstacles: Automotive websites often struggle to fully load in China due to the incompatibility of their third-party resources (e.g., Google APIs, Facebook/Instagram trackers) and physical infrastructure setup with the China internet ecosystem.
Potential solutions: To resolve code-based and infrastructure-based incompatibilities between your website and China’s internet environment, you need to consider third-party resources on your website and the means by which you’re delivering the content to the end user (i.e. a Content Delivery Network (CDN)).
Ongoing maintenance: The Chinese internet environment changes frequently, making regular testing and updates essential.
Here are two tools you can try out to see how your site loads in China:
Global speed test - test your site from 18 servers around the world including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Visual speed test - watch and compare your site as it loads in real-time outside versus inside China.
Running these tests is a first step to spotting where bottlenecks occur to set a benchmark for any improvements you make later.
China is home to the largest automotive market in the world by volume. Whether you’re a car manufacturer, dealership, or parts supplier, ensuring your website is functional in China opens doors to enormous potential.
For both consumer and commercial vehicles, you need to establish credibility to grow your business. Inaccessible or slow-loading sites can cast doubts about your brand’s quality and commitment to the local audience.
Dealers, distributors, or sales teams in China may need to access your site for updated product information, marketing materials, or after-sales resources. If your site is underperforming, you lose an important channel for communicating with your local partners.
Many automotive brands work with Chinese companies to co-develop parts, EV batteries, or other specialized components. A functional website in China can help streamline these B2B interactions and attract new collaborations.
Post-purchase, car owners rely on your website for warranty details, servicing instructions, parts ordering, and more. When customers in China can’t access these resources, it impacts user satisfaction and your overall brand image.
While some websites are officially blocked in China, most others simply just don’t work well because they’re not optimized for the Chinese internet. Those that suffer from poor performance in China do so due to two primary reasons: code incompatibility and infrastructure limitations as it is specifically related to the China internet ecosystem.
Many automotive websites use third-party resources such as Google Maps for dealership locations, YouTube or Vimeo for product videos and launch events, or ad and analytics trackers from platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
In China, some of these third-party resources may be blocked altogether, while others perform poorly and lead to long load times or time-outs. When a browser tries to retrieve blocked or restricted content, it gets “stuck,” leading to delays of 30 seconds or more.
Hosting your website outside of China creates additional latency due to the physical distance between your servers and the end users in China.
Even with global CDNs, the majority do not have Points of Presence (PoPs) by default inside China and so the distance still slows down site performance. Even if they do have PoPs inside of China, they’re not automatically included in your CDN package as you would still have to fulfil certain prerequisites to leverage them.
If website visitors in China experience incomplete page loads or functionality, it can impact your brand’s credibility and potential sales.
Automotive websites commonly use third-party resources like videos for product demos, interactive 3D model viewers, or analytics. These resources can cause significant slowdowns if they rely on services that are blocked or non-performant in China.
It would be easy to think that by removing the obvious third-party resources (like Google Maps or YouTube videos) from your website, the site would consequently load fast and fully in China.
However, the nature of China’s internet ecosystem means that the way third-party resources work in China differs and evolves over time so there is no one-off list or means to edit these resources. Changes will likely have to be made on an ongoing basis.
Chinafy is a specialized solution that can identify third-party resources that are causing web performance issues for your site in China.
Chinafy will then replace, remove or optimize incompatible resources on a China-friendly version of your site.
This means you maintain your global site’s functionality everywhere else, while ensuring visitors in China see a version that runs efficiently and fully.
When a user accesses your website from China, the browser usually has to retrieve files from servers located outside of China, sometimes as far away as the US or Europe. This leads to slower load times, higher latency, or even timeouts, despite your site performing just fine in the rest of the world.
Misconceptions around CDNs tend to fall into two categories. Some people think:
That all global CDNs should make websites run well in China by default.
Many "global CDNs" don't have Points of Presence (PoPs) in China because using a CDN there requires meeting specific prerequisites. As a result, these CDNs often fail to address the infrastructure challenges faced by global websites.
That using only a CDN will make your website compatible with China’s internet environment.
CDNs don’t resolve code- or file-based issues relating to blocked or restricted third-party resources that could lead to your site still loading slowly or failing to load altogether.
Using an onshore CDN will store and deliver your website’s content closer to end users in China, but because the servers are within mainland China, there are regulatory prerequisites to using them, including:
Obtaining an ICP filing or license
Establishing a local entity or partnering with a local provider
Registering your website with the Public Security Bureau (PSB)
Remaining compliant with China’s content regulations, such as data localization.
The decision to host your automotive website within China or use a China CDN is an organization-level decision. Irrespectively, it’s important to remember that it is not a silver bullet to a fast-performing website, as third-party resources can remain an issue.
Whether your automotive site is hosted offshore or onshore, Chinafy can be bolted onto your existing technical stack to achieve faster loading times, and a more functional website experience.
Similar to using a China-compatible CDN, physically hosting your site in China can reduce latency on certain parts of your website. Keep in mind that if this is the same website serving global visitors, this may inadvertently worsen load times for users in other regions.
One of the common misconceptions of hosting onshore is that it’s simply a case of replicating the site on a server within China. The reality is that a move to an onshore host typically requires a simplification of the automotive website, in addition to legal and regulatory requirements, as even China-hosted sites face functionality issues when certain files or code conflict with China’s internet.
If it makes sense to do so, hosting your automotive business’s website onshore has certain prerequisites:
ICP License: An ICP license or filing is mandatory if you want to host within China. This usually requires a local entity or a partnership with a Chinese company.
Legal structure: Some brands establish a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) or a joint venture with a local Chinese company.
Ongoing compliance: Even with onshore hosting, be prepared to continually monitor changes in policies that may affect your content or domain.
Optimizing your automotive business’s website for China often requires a blend of technical know-how, ongoing optimizations and constant monitoring. This can be resource-intensive, especially if your internal IT team is already stretched thin.
Chinafy often gets compared to CDNs but Chinafy is not a CDN. Chinafy is the only China web compatibility solution able to intelligently identify, replace or remove blocked or slow resources for your visitors in China on an ongoing basis so that your site loads fast, and fully.
Generates a version of your website 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.
Speeds up content delivery with a China-friendly CDN.
Typically takes only a couple of weeks to implement with minimal IT involvement. Variability will depend on the complexity of the site.
Chinafy is also compatible with most, if not all CMS platforms that you are currently using as our technology sits as a layer above your website.
Even if your automotive website is optimized for China today, the landscape can change tomorrow. China’s internet environment shifts frequently, and global site updates can introduce new elements that are incompatible in China.
Here are two quick tips to stay on top of changes that could impact your site in China:
Periodic testing: Run speed tests - both synthetic and real user monitoring (RUM) - from multiple locations in China (e.g., Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) on a frequent basis.
Stay informed on policy changes: Subscribe to relevant updates or rely on a trusted partner to keep you compliant with changing regulations.
Optimizing your automotive website for China ensures that anyone trying to learn more about your vehicles, brand, or partnership opportunities can do so quickly and seamlessly. By making your site fully accessible, you’ll boost trust, enhance your brand’s reputation, and tap into the world’s largest automotive market.
If you’d like to discuss how Chinafy can help you optimize your site for China, get in touch with us today.