If you plan to do business in China, you should know how this country limits internet access and usage. China uses a type of internet censorship, cleverly named the Great Firewall, to restrict access to certain types of internet content.
Chinese citizens can’t just access any website on a whim due to this content restriction. For example, the Great Firewall restricts Chinese internet users’ access to popular social media networks and streaming services like YouTube, Slack, Yahoo, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and Facebook. It also works the other way around, as some China-based websites aren’t available outside China.
China blocks all these websites and the associated content using the world’s most robust censorship system. Today, we’ll discuss the difficulties of individuals and businesses that want to gather web data from China-based websites and how China proxies enable them to access websites only available in China.
Challenges of accessing and gathering web data from Chinese websites
China invented the Great Firewall (GFW) to regulate the flow of information entering the country. The purpose of GFW is to restrict and regulate foreign business initiatives while favoring local Chinese companies.
Since we’re talking about a sophisticated, vast cybersecurity system, the Chinese government uses a wide range of censorship methods to restrict internet usage in the country to some extent.
These methods and techniques include:
- IP address blocking – the GFW prevents you from connecting to restricted websites by blocking all the IP addresses from mainland China.
- URL filtering – GFW web administrators use URL filtering to gather and add URLs to the local database. They block filtered URLs on the local network by identifying sensitive keywords that may be inappropriate in the Chinese context. If you enter a filtered URL to collect data, GFW will block you from accessing the content.
- DNS spoofing – GFW uses DNS spoofing to prevent you from accessing the target website by returning a corrupt or incorrect address.
- AI and manual censoring – GFS relies on the power of artificial intelligence to automate the censoring process by exploiting websites’ back-end functionalities. In addition, China employs hundreds of thousands of employees to track, monitor, and censor any online content the Chinese government deems harmful.
- VPN blocking – the Chinese government is well aware of how a VPN works, so they use preventive measures to block VPNs and prevent them from circumventing the GFW.
All these primary censorship methods prevent you from accessing and gathering web data from Chinese websites that you can use to elevate your business. Fortunately, you can fix these problems using China proxies.
What are proxies, and how do they work?
China proxies can help you get around the GFW and access any website regardless of your location. Put simply, a proxy server gives you unlimited internet access to web data anywhere in the world by hiding your real location and IP address.
It masks your real identity and helps you access the target websites anonymously. China proxies prevent GFW officials from finding a direct connection between you and the restricted website. You can safely navigate websites with a China proxy, while at the same time overcoming any restrictions you may experience when trying to access China-based websites.
China proxies also give you a pool of IP addresses you can rotate for each web request according to your needs.
If GFW bans one or several of your connections, you can quickly use the other IP to establish a new connection. That’s how China proxies enable you to access Chinese websites and gather web data only available in China.
Business use cases of China proxy servers
Let’s see how China proxies can help your e-commerce efforts:
- Market research – China proxy helps you collect, analyze, and process web data for fueling your business operations by giving you access to Chinese web data and expediting data harvesting. They empower you to overcome local challenges, create effective targeted marketing strategies, identify new customers, and address their specific needs.
- Ad verification – China proxies can help you test and verify your ads across China by bypassing geo-restrictions, IP blocking, and CAPTCHAs. Another benefit of ad verification with China proxies is that they help you detect and prevent fraudulent marketing activities without exposing your real IP address, which the fraudulent website could easily block.
- Price monitoring – since China proxies give you unrestricted access to the Chinese internet, you can monitor and analyze prices to enhance and localize your pricing strategy and cope with the ever-changing market trends in China.
- Bypassing geo-restrictions – China proxies help you access geo-restricted web data only available in China, thus empowering you to adjust your products and services to the demands of the local target audience.
Conclusion
Though GFW may restrict access to the Chinese internet, China proxies can help you bypass those restrictions and get your hands on web data only available on Chinese websites. Proxies are safe, affordable, and secure tools for accessing blocked websites within China.
China proxy servers can help you improve your business efforts by giving you access to local markets. That’s why China proxies are among the most popular solutions to circumvent geo-restrictions when accessing Chinese websites, which also enables you to perform SEO monitoring, price monitoring, market research, and more.
