How Can Chinese Companies Navigate Complex Compliance Environments in Global Expansion?
- Oct 14, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
As globalization shifts from an optional strategy to a business imperative, customer service systems serve as critical touchpoints connecting overseas users. The compliance of data processing in these systems directly impacts brand reputation and customer trust.
However, many Chinese companies have paid a heavy price for overlooking data compliance during their global expansion. Just last month, fast-fashion e-commerce giant SHEIN was fined €150 million for violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), serving as a wake-up call for all companies expanding internationally.
As a service provider specializing in enterprise digital transformation, Bricom understands that data compliance is not merely a legal requirement—it's a fundamental guarantee for stable operations and long-term growth in overseas markets.
1. Global Data Compliance: A Non-Negotiable Priority for International Expansion
With increasingly stringent global regulations, data compliance has become the "entry pass" for companies seeking to enter international markets.
The EU's GDPR explicitly stipulates that non-compliant companies can face fines of up to 4% of their global annual revenue—a figure significant enough to alarm any enterprise.
Since its official implementation in 2018, the GDPR has been regarded as the world's strictest and most far-reaching data protection law. Its scope extends beyond EU-based companies to any organization worldwide that offers goods or services to EU residents or processes their personal data.
Meanwhile, data protection regulations worldwide are rapidly evolving, forming an increasingly comprehensive regulatory network:
United States: While there is no unified federal data protection law, California's Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its upgraded version, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), have become national benchmarks. Additionally, industry-specific regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and state-level privacy laws create a complex, fragmented compliance landscape. Under the latest Executive Order 14117, Chinese companies face heightened compliance obligations and risks when processing U.S. user data across borders.
Asia-Pacific Region: Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI), India's Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDPB), and multiple Southeast Asian countries are rapidly strengthening their data protection frameworks.
While these laws vary, they all emphasize core principles such as accountability, purpose limitation, data minimization, and security safeguards—aligning with GDPR standards.
For companies expanding globally, the massive volume of user interaction data processed daily by customer service systems is a primary focus for regulatory authorities.
If companies fail to establish a robust compliance framework at this critical juncture, they face significant data security risks that could result in substantial fines and severe damage to brand reputation.
2 Beware of Short-Sighted Strategies: Hidden Traps of Low-Cost Solutions and In-House Development
Faced with compliance pressures, many companies fall into two dangerous "cost-saving" traps that ultimately create greater risks:
Over-Reliance on In-House Development:
Some companies believe that building customer service data systems with internal technical teams offers greater flexibility, yet they overlook the specialized expertise required for data compliance.
Data compliance involves complex processes including data classification, lifecycle management, and user rights response. Inexperienced teams are likely to leave vulnerabilities during the initial architecture design phase, with subsequent remediation costs far exceeding initial investments.
Choosing Low-Cost Non-Compliant Products:
Budget constraints lead some companies to purchase inexpensive data analytics tools, cloud services, CRM systems, or marketing platforms that lack data protection capabilities.
While these tools may fulfill basic functions, their underlying logic may default to unrestricted data aggregation and cross-border usage, contradicting the "privacy by default" compliance principle. Once detected by regulators, companies must bear full responsibility for fines and litigation.
It's crucial to understand that crises triggered by compliance gaps extend beyond hefty fines—they lead to brand reputation collapse, loss of customer trust, and termination of partnerships. The costs "saved" upfront cannot compensate for these devastating losses.
3 Abandon the Experience-Based Approach: Domestic Models Cannot Be Simply Replicated
Many companies habitually replicate their mature domestic customer service data processing models overseas, ignoring the substantial differences between domestic and international data governance environments. The regulatory focus and enforcement approaches of China's Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and Personal Information Protection Law differ significantly from overseas regulations like the EU's GDPR.
For instance, precision customer service marketing based on big data is relatively common in China, but in EU markets, user authorization must be explicit, revocable, and not mandatory for service access. Any "default consent" or "passive authorization" constitutes a violation.
More critically, cross-border data issues arise: domestic data exports require security assessments and other conditions, while GDPR has strict requirements for data transfers to "third countries." Receiving countries must be deemed to have an "adequate level of protection"—a designation China has not yet obtained. If companies continue to transfer overseas data back to headquarters following domestic practices, they may directly cross regulatory red lines.
TikTok's multiple fines for data compliance issues serve as highly instructive cautionary tales:
In 2021, Dutch regulators fined TikTok €750,000 for providing privacy statements only in English without Dutch translations, making it difficult for child users to understand how their personal data was collected and used.
In April 2023, the UK Information Commissioner's Office fined TikTok £12.7 million for failing to adequately protect the privacy of children under 13, not obtaining parental consent, and not providing child-friendly information.
In September 2023, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) issued a €345 million fine to TikTok for improper handling of children's data in 2020, including "public by default" settings, inappropriate "Family Pairing" features, and insufficient age verification, requiring corrective measures within three months.
In 2025, Ireland's DPC imposed another €530 million administrative fine on TikTok for illegally transferring EU user data to China, violating GDPR provisions on data transfers and transparency.
These cases clearly demonstrate that Chinese companies expanding globally must move beyond the experience-based approach of "doing overseas what works domestically." They must thoroughly research target market regulations and cultural concepts, reshaping cross-border data processing logic.
4 The Path Forward: Partner with Compliance Leaders
In an environment of increasingly strict global data regulation, building systems from scratch is not only costly and time-consuming for most Chinese companies expanding internationally—it's also difficult to address the complex compliance requirements of different countries.
A wiser choice is to "borrow a ship to sail"—partnering with collaborators who possess deep compliance experience and international technical capabilities, leveraging mature platforms to complete compliance framework construction and easily overcome compliance challenges.
Through deep partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Zendesk, Bricom provides Chinese companies expanding globally with customer service solutions that combine intelligence and compliance.
1. Forward-Looking Compliance Architecture:
Data encryption, access control, and security audit mechanisms are embedded at the system foundation. Whether it's data encryption, data access permissions, or operation record auditing, compliance incorporates Privacy by Design principles from the product design stage.
2. Comprehensive International Certifications:
Support for internationally recognized security certifications such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS, covering core regional regulations including the EU's GDPR and California's CCPA, providing companies with solid compliance credentials.
3. Localization and Cross-Border Compliance:
Leveraging a global data center infrastructure to meet different markets' data localization storage requirements while providing standardized cross-border data transfer mechanisms (such as Standard Contractual Clauses/SCCs), helping companies efficiently and compliantly manage cross-border data flows.
4. Shared Responsibility Model:
Companies and service providers jointly bear compliance responsibilities—cloud service providers handle infrastructure-level security and compliance, while companies focus on application-layer management and optimization. This mechanism achieves risk distribution and enables companies to respond collaboratively with partners when issues arise.
Choosing mature global platforms may appear to require higher investment, but it's actually trading predictable operational costs for controllable compliance security. Leveraging these long-validated solutions, companies can not only steadily address regulatory challenges but also focus on innovation and growth, safely navigating toward broader international markets.
Closing Thoughts
In the digital economy era, data is a core resource for enterprise development, and compliance is the necessary guideline for regulating its use. For Chinese companies expanding globally, data compliance is no longer an additional cost—it's a core competitive advantage for winning markets, customers, and trust.
Bricom firmly believes that compliant intelligent customer service systems not only enhance customer experience but also become a core competitive advantage for companies in overseas markets.
Looking ahead, Bricom will continue partnering with global collaborators like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Zendesk to provide companies with secure, compliant, and intelligent customer service system solutions.
Beijing Bridge Communication Co., Ltd (Bricom) is an AWS Partner Network (APN) Partner and a Zendesk Premier Partner. Bricom empowers enterprises in China and around the world to achieve digital transformation and continuous innovation, providing implementation capabilities for Amazon Connect and Zendesk, as well as lifecycle management services for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS).
We offer one-stop integrated solutions for customer interaction data, effectively addressing data silo issues and facilitating the seamless deployment of AI applications for enterprises. By building a unified customer data platform, we realize omnichannel data aggregation and intelligent routing, empowering contact centers to deliver seamless service experiences and fully unlock the value of AI.
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Wechat Channel: Bricom普利康姆 |
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