Baidu Baike is a Chinese-language collaborative online encyclopedia owned by the Chinese technology company Baidu. It was launched in April 2006. After 20 days, it had more than 300,000 registered users and more than 100,000 articles, surpassing the number in Chinese Wikipedia. it had 19 million articles and more than 6.9 million editors. Critics of the encyclopedia note that it censors its content in accordance with the requirements of the Chinese government.
History
Baidu Baike was launched in April 2006. After 20 days, it had more than 300,000 registered users and more than 100,000 articles, surpassing the number in Chinese Wikipedia. it had 16 million articles and more than 6.9 million editors. Baidu's William Chang said at WWW2008, the conference of the World Wide Web Consortium, "There is, in fact, no reason for China to use Wikipedia... It's very natural for China to make its own products." When searching with the search engine Baidu, the link of the corresponding entry in Baidu Baike, if exists, will be put as the first result or one of the first results.
Community
There are three organized groups within Baidu Baike community. The Baike Elite Team consists of about 340 core contributors that are directed by Baidu and serve as community liaisons. There is also a group of campus ambassadors made of students and an expert team with over 2,500 members, including university professors.
Partnerships
Baidu Baike engages in partnerships with cultural institutions in China and abroad to digitize cultural heritage. In late 2017, Baidu signed an agreement in China to create "2,000 online digital museums" in the next three years. In early 2018, partnerships were expanded to cover 1,000 Spanish cities and tourist sites, including the Camino de Santiago, the Sagrada Família and the Prado Museum.
Controversies
Censorship
Being in the jurisdiction of the Chinese government, Baidu is required to censor content on their encyclopedia in accordance to relevant governmental regulations. All editors need to register accounts using their real names before editing, and administrators filter edits before they go public. This censorship has attracted criticism.
