Beijing’s market regulator has got eight of China’s biggest ad platforms to sign a self-regulation pact on online marketing. IT之家 reports, citing the Beijing Administration for Market Regulation, that Baidu, Ocean Engine (ByteDance’s ad platform), Tencent, Kuaishou, JD, Meituan, 360 and ifeng have signed the 《互联网营销宣传自律公约》, the “Internet Marketing Promotion Self-Discipline Convention”. According to Jiemian, the signing took place on 23 October at the opening of the 33rd China International Advertising Festival in Beijing’s Haidian district. Beijing Daily frames it as Beijing taking the lead in regulating online marketing through industry self-regulation.
The convention is built on the Advertising Law, the E-Commerce Law, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the consumer protection law and the internet advertising rules. It applies to commercial ads and marketing in any format: text and images, short video and livestreams. It sets four principles: values guidance, truthfulness, fair competition, and safety and compliance.
What the platforms signed up to
- Know your advertiser. Platforms must verify identity, business qualifications and administrative licences, keep files up to date, and store the electronic records for at least three years.
- Livestream policing. Live-commerce platforms must vet agencies and individual streamers, and monitor streams through patrols and inspections.
- AI labelling. Commercial promotion using AI deep-synthesis must be clearly labelled. AI must not be used to fabricate false information, create fake endorsements or infringe others’ rights.
- No “unreasonably low prices”. No misleading promotions, and no advertising of unreasonably low prices that drag down prices and “lower consumers’ psychological expectations”.
- Sector rules for medical, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, health food, education and training, wealth management and real estate.
- Ad hygiene. Ads must be identifiable as ads. The convention also covers absolute claims (the “best”, “No.1” problem), misleading big-print/small-print offers, and requires the source of any quoted or cited content to be labelled (引证内容出处标注).
The platforms also commit to cooperating with regulators, taking action against violations, and supplying data to help investigations.
Why search marketers should care
On paper this is a voluntary code. In practice, a code that Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent and 360 sign in front of their regulator becomes the review standard their ad systems apply. For anyone buying Baidu search ads or Ocean Engine placements, expect stricter qualification checks and more rejections in the regulated verticals. Health is the obvious one, given how hard Baidu has just leaned into AI health answers with doctors below.
The clause I’d watch is the labelling of cited sources. Read together with the AI-labelling and fake-endorsement rules, it closes off a lot of what passes for “GEO” in China: synthetic reviews, AI-written “expert” endorsements, and content that cites rankings or reports that don’t exist. Regulators have already shown they will act here. Earlier this month we covered China fining three GEO vendors over fake rankings fed to AI answers. This pact moves the obligation upstream to the platforms that host the content.
It also fits the wider picture. The search engines are under pressure on ad load, with Bing China, Baidu and Sogou adding one-click ad hiding. More ad surface, more AI-generated creative and more scrutiny all point the same way: compliance becomes a ranking factor in all but name.
Our take
Holding to a high evidence threshold, I would not over-read a self-discipline convention. It contains no new penalties, it is a Beijing initiative rather than a national rule, and Chinese platforms sign codes like this regularly. What makes this one worth noting is how specific it is about AI. It explicitly targets deep-synthesis marketing, fake AI endorsements and unsourced citations, and that lines up with how both regulators and the AI answer engines are starting to judge trust.
If you advertise or publish in China, the practical checklist is short. Get qualification documents in order, label AI-generated creative, cite real sources on your landing pages, and drop superlatives. Brands doing that already will not notice much. Those relying on grey-market GEO tactics should expect the platforms to start doing the regulator’s work for it.