Capturing More of Wikipedia's Market Share: Hudong Announces 'Word Media' Service for Australian Users

BEIJING, June 18 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- On June 18, 2010 Dr. Pan Haidong, CEO of Hudong.com, the world's largest Chinese encyclopedia website, officially announced at Sydney's "Global Media Ideas in 2010" International Summit that Hudong.com has established close strategic partnerships with numerous Australian websites for overseas Chinese on matters of both content and technology. This strategic move into the international market follows Hudong.com's entrance into the North American market in November of last year.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100618/CNF016 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100618/CNF016 )

Hudong.com has already established strategic partnerships with many websites for overseas Chinese living in Australia, including OZChinese.com, Ozyoyo.com, Chinatown Online, and FreeOZ.org. In these partnerships, Hudong.com assists Australian websites for overseas Chinese by allowing them to use HDWiki, the first Chinese encyclopedia website development system in the world to establish platforms which may offer searches and access a wealth of information on recent developments in China and other hot topics. Dr. Pan Haidong explained that Hudong.com's HDWiki system currently serves over 100,000 websites and channels in over 40 sectors, including the education, economic, food, and computer industries.

Regarding this cooperation with numerous Australian websites for overseas Chinese, Pan Haidong stated that HDWiki is a strategically significant system developed by Hudong.com, and through it, people can quickly create websites and other online platforms. Since HDWiki provides tech support, including highly-developed encyclopedia functionality and layouts, even people without a background in technology can easily create websites. Perhaps even more importantly, users can also selectively utilize all of the content resources from Hudong.com's online encyclopedia through the HDWiki system. Pan Haidong said, "Hudong.com strives to be the best Chinese online encyclopedia in the world. In May of this year in Beijing, we announced our strategic move, 'Word Media,' through which we have already established partnerships with 500 traditional and new media outlets, pooling our abundant knowledge and information to serve a broad base of Chinese readers."

Responding to journalists' questions regarding the overall international strategy of Hudong.com, Dr. Pan Haidong revealed, "Hudong.com understands the Chinese language and people better than Wikipedia, which was made even clearer when Hudong.com garnered the attention and support of many users following its entrance into the North American market in November of last year. In the past few years, demand among overseas Chinese for information about Chinese culture and hot button issues has grown by leaps and bounds. Hudong.com, based out of China, provides this group with the latest news and information on the latest developments in China, all accessible through a streamlined and user-friendly system. These Australian partnerships are another opportunity for Hudong.com to demonstrate the strengths of the HDWiki system and take it to the next level. In the future, Hudong.com intends to focus on developing the international market, and we are already preparing to enter the Southeast Asian market." Experts in the field stated that given the rate of growth in China's internet industry from 2009 to 2010, the Chinese wiki industry has definitely entered a stage of rapid development, better educated and higher-earning individuals are using wiki platforms, and encyclopedia websites in China have earned the acceptance and support of users. The Chinese wiki industry is at the forefront of a new era for China's internet.

Hudong.com is the world's largest Chinese encyclopedia website, and according to authoritative statistical rankings, it comes in 54th among Chinese websites, having risen an impressive 30 places in the past half-year. As of June, 2010, the encyclopedia website Hudong.com has 2.27 million contributors, who have created 4.61 million articles, with over 4.92 billion words and five million pictures.

SOURCE Hudong.com