Introduction

To help you reach a vast new market and significantly grow your e-commerce opportunity, Brightcove is excited to introduce the ability to deliver video into China through a partnership with global e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Delivering video to China from outside the country is challenging due to regulations and controls. Historically, we provided a solution that allowed Brightcove services to distribute video content through a content delivery network within the country. However, essential communications, including Playback API requests and responses, and Analytics beacons were unreliable, and at times non-functional.

Brightcove’s China Delivery solution addresses these problems and consists of two parts:

A proxy server hosted within China
A connected China-specific CDN

The proxy routes non-video traffic (Playback API requests, Analytics beacons, and the web player itself) to and from viewers in China to Brightcove infrastructure located outside.

The CDN is connected to the proxy and handles the video and image content.

Setup

The following setup is needed to support Brightcove's China Delivery solution:

Contact your Customer Success Manager:
- Make sure you have a Brightcove Enterprise account
- Enable your account for China Delivery; This is a paid add-on to {{ site.product_short }}
This account can deliver inside and outside of China. A separate account is optional, but not required.
Configure a player for China Delivery. You can use either the Brightcove web player or the Native SDK players:
- China Delivery with Brightcove Player
- China Delivery with the Native SDKs
Acquire a valid Internet Content Provider (ICP) license
- An approved domain or subdomain name listed on the ICP license
- A website for publishing players, hosted on the approved domain

FAQ

Here are some common questions:

How much does an ICP license cost?

Your cost for an ICP license may vary. If you have a native speaker who can translate and manage the process, it won't cost anything extra to apply for the license. Otherwise, you may have to pay someone to translate and manage the process.

Can Brightcove help with getting an ICP license?

No, Brightcove can't legally act as an intermediary to help you acquire the license.

Limitations

The following are known limitations with China Delivery:

Current limitations

Player configuration requires editing JSON and/or usage of the Player Management API; a “one-click” Player configuration via the Studio is intended for the future
The Native SDK for Android will support China Delivery at a later date

Unsupported features:

Brightcove Live Streaming and Cloud Playout are not supported
Dynamic Delivery Rules and Static URLs are not supported
Chinese Data Privacy laws prohibit the use of the Audience/Campaign plugins and user-specific analytics; the latest versions of the plugins will be disabled automatically in China Delivery-enabled players

Player and SDK plugins can be used as normal but external services may be unreachable from within China, and Brightcove cannot provide support for them. These include:

DRM
Advertising (CSAI + SSAI)
Third-party Analytics services