An ICP license is a permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that allows websites to operate in China. An ICP license is required for any website that is hosted on a mainland China server, or that wants to use a China-based CDN service to accelerate its access in China. Therefore, you would need to apply an ICP license in the following cases:

Accelerate your Overseas Website in China: If you have a website that is hosted outside of China, but you want to use Alibaba Cloud’s CDN service to improve its performance and user experience in China, you would need to apply an ICP license for your domain name. This is because Alibaba Cloud’s CDN nodes are located in mainland China, and any website that uses them must comply with the Chinese regulations.

Launch your website in China: If you want to host your website on an Alibaba Cloud ECS instance or OSS bucket that is located in mainland China, you would need to apply an ICP license for your domain name. This is because any website that is hosted on a mainland China server must have an ICP license to be accessible and legal in China.

Launch your online shop in China: If you want to run an e-commerce website that sells goods or services to customers in China, you would need to apply an ICP license for your domain name. This is because any website that engages in commercial activities in China must have an ICP license to operate legally and securely in China.

References: What is an ICP License? - Alibaba Cloud Academy, ICP License Application - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center