App backend readiness — where China launches really fail
The store listing is the easy part. Evaluate API latency, push, SMS, and SDK behavior before you submit.
Teams obsess over the app store submission and under-invest in the thing that actually breaks: the backend. A perfectly approved app with an unreachable backend is a one-star-review machine. Evaluate the backend before you submit, not after.
What to measure from the mainland
- API latency and timeouts — every critical endpoint, from a mainland node.
- Push delivery — whether notifications actually arrive on domestic devices.
- SMS / OTP — delivery rates and delay for account flows.
- Third-party SDKs — analytics, crash reporting, ads, and login SDKs that may block.
The remediation ladder
The verdict from the measurement points to one of three routes:
- Acceleration — keep the backend, speed up the path.
- Proxy — front the backend with a China-reachable entry.
- China-side backend — for products where latency and reliability demand it.
The point of measuring first is to land on the smallest route that clears your bar — and to know it before the store review clock starts.
