Adobe Sign China Service Countdown

In the last week of June 2025, Adobe Sign, the world's second-largest e-signature platform, will officially withdraw from the mainland China market. At that time, all users (including senders, signers, approvers, viewers, and other supported roles) attempting to access Acrobat Sign from a mainland China IP address via a web, app, or API integration will receive an “Access Denied” error and will not be able to use Adobe Acrobat Sign. 

This adjustment of Adobe Sign is not a sudden decision, but a decade-long strategic contraction of Adobe in mainland China:

2014: the first closure of the China R&D center, shifting to a sales-led model;

2022: the blocking of the Behance community account in China, cutting off the designer's resource base;

2024: the complete disappearance of Photoshop personal subscription version in mainland China. .

January 2025: Adobe Sign launches SSL certificate update, China servers are excluded from the upgrade list;

The root cause: AI compliance and data sovereignty conflict 
As one of the world's largest consumer markets, China has always been the multinational giants of the business war “soldiers must fight for the place”, so why Adobe retreat in such a hurry?
Everything stems from the trend of cloud computing relatively embarrassing geographic relations: Adobe has long been fully turned to the cloud service system, the current stage of the main AI features are all based on cloud computing, Adobe Terms of Service requires users to “permanently authorize the data used for AI training”, but it is not like Apple as in China to establish data centers, which does not comply with the relevant regulations and policies in mainland China. However, it has not set up a data center in China like Apple, which is not in line with the relevant regulations and policies in mainland China, so it may be the only way to withdraw from the market.
Vacuum effect: Multinationals face signing crisis 
According to the official announcement, all users and corporate customers in mainland China will face the risk of service interruption. Domestic users and multinational enterprises relying on the platform will be subject to the triple serious challenges of data migration, business continuity assurance and cross-border compliance pressure.
“It's like being suddenly cut off from oxygen,” said Zhang Tao, head of a cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen. His company has been using Adobe Sign to handle cross-border contracts for years, and is now faced with the dilemma of migrating nearly 1,000 contractual agreements.
Relying on Hong Kong Super Hub to Realize Global Compliance for Cross-border Signing 
With the withdrawal of Adobe Sign from the mainland market, the global e-signature market landscape is undergoing a profound restructuring. Choosing an alternative solution with global compliance capabilities and localized service strength will become the key to guaranteeing digital business continuity for many multinational enterprises and users. According to the data, eSignature, which has been deeply engaged in the electronic signature industry for more than 20 years, will become the key successor of cross-border signing in China through its forward-looking globalization layout.

According to IDC report, eSignGlobal will occupy the first place in electronic signature market size in Mainland China in 2021 and 2022, and set up its overseas business headquarters eSignGlobal in Hong Kong, China in 2023, and successfully docked with iAM Smart, the digital identity authentication platform launched by the Hong Kong SAR Government to cover 9 million citizens, and is the only successful docking service provider at present. "eSignGlobal was the only e-signature service provider to successfully interface with iAM Smart, the digital identity authentication platform launched by the Hong Kong SAR Government, which covers 9 million citizens. In the same year, eSignGlobal won the Hong Kong FinTech Award, signifying that its technology solutions have been recognized by Hong Kong and international authorities.

Relying on Hong Kong, eSignGlobal has built a network of three major data centers covering the world, forming a strategic layout with mainland China as the core and radiating to key regions such as Asia-Pacific and Europe. This layout not only meets the compliance requirements of localized data storage, but also provides low-latency and highly available cross-border signing solutions for multinational enterprises through the multi-node synergy mechanism.

Legal compliance is the core layer of electronic signature service. eSignGlobal has completed the adaptation of more than 70 national and regional regulations in 2024, including international standards such as the EU's “Electronic Identity Authentication and Trust Services Regulation (eIDAS)”, and at the same time, strictly follows the “China Electronic Signature Law” and laws related to data sovereignty, and builds up a full-process compliance system from identity verification to contract deposit. Compliance system.

With its localized and cost-effective solutions, eSignGlobal has served more than 3,000 overseas Chinese enterprises and multinational organizations, including benchmark clients such as Hong Kong Cyberport, China Construction International, Unity, etc., covering a wide range of scenarios such as cross-border trade, engineering contracting, and fintech.

In April 2025, eSignPower globally premiered its intelligent contract Agent developed based on its self-research vertical big model at the GITEX ASIA Technology Summit in Singapore, and its AI technology performance shines in the whole cycle of services such as intelligent contract signing, review, and contract management.

Under the background of the collision between globalized products and sovereign digital governance, eSignGlobal realizes ‘compliance to the sea’ through such super hubs as Hong Kong, builds the electronic signature system with China as the core, and becomes the Chinese paradigm of reconstructing the rules of trust for global business with the universality of AI technology. eSignGlobal's rise shows that China's electronic signature and SaaS industries are gradually shifting from ‘followers’ to ‘leaders’ through technology export and standard docking, providing trustworthy Chinese solutions for global digital trade. The rise of eSignGlobal shows that China's e-signature and SaaS industry is gradually shifting from “follower” to “leader” through technology export and standard docking to provide a trustworthy Chinese solution for global digital trade.