BEIJING, May 12 -- A China version of Wikipedia has garnered more than 100,000 search terms and has 300,000 registered users as of Wednesday, 20 days after its soft launch last month.

    Baidu Baike (baike.baidu.com), Baidu.com's answer to the popular Wikipedia, said yesterday it now receives a new search term every two seconds and an average of 5,000 approved entries daily.

    The No. 1 search engine in China claims that the new service has surpassed Wikipedia's Chinese version in terms of the number of entries.

    Baidu chairman and chief executive Robin Li hopes that the encyclopedia will be the most authoritative one for Chinese users and become the number one in this area, he said in the Financial Times.

    Modeled after Wikipedia's free-for-all concept, Baidu Baike allows all users to contribute to, and edit, its encyclopedia.

    Although the service is Chinese language based, users can still get some basic information, for example, about Madonna by keying the US pop singer's English name.

    But to find out about Indian peace crusader Mahatma Ghandi or former US President Bill Clinton, however, users have to enter their names in Chinese characters Gan Di or Ke Lin Dun.

    Wikipedia, founded in 1999 by former options trader Jimmy Wales, is funded by donations and thrives on contributions from millions of users, a concept which is said to have helped keep its neutrality and objectivity.

    Baidu, while encouraging contributions from its users, also hires "experts" to "ensure the quality of entries and keep the site free of advertisements and junk information", it told Shanghai Daily in an email response.

    "This is necessary in order to enhance the experience of our users," said Bian Jiang, Baidu's product marketing director.

    Analysts said that the inaccessibility of some overseas sites in China has created immense opportunities for domestic players in the Internet market.

    Critics have accused Baidu Baike of lifting contents from Wikipedia, but Bian said that "the sharing of information is instrumental in the development and the continuity of knowledge."

    The act of sifting out relevant information and editing is in itself a process of information packaging, he pointed out.

    "Baidu Baike has a rigorous copyright system to protect the rights of the original contributor and editor of an entry," he said.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)