How Baidu built an encyclopedia with 16 times more Chinese entries than Wikipedia
- Transition from hard format encyclopaedias to open-source encyclopaedias has raised some quality-of-information issues though
Jiang Ting is not your average K-pop fan from China. The 35-year-old from Inner Mongolia has turned her detailed knowledge of Korean pop stars into actual entries in the world’s biggest Chinese encyclopaedia and earned prizes for it.
Back in 2013, Jiang was crazy about 2PM, a South Korean K-pop group. After getting tired of repeatedly regaling new fans of 2PM with background details on band members and live performances, Jiang decided to write an article on Baidu Baike, run by Chinese search engine giant Baidu.
From this modest beginning, Jiang has now edited more than 30,000 entries on Baidu Baike, with over 1,400 tagged as “high quality”, covering a range of pop idols managed by 2PM’s agency JYP Entertainment and others. For this she has received wealth points which she can redeem for prizes on Baike Mall, including items like Apple’s new iPhone 11.
“I don't really like hanging out with friends. My life is simply divided between work and home,” Jiang said, “If I’m not editing [entries] on Baidu Baike, I’m binge-watching TV shows, which costs. So I’d rather edit on Baike.”
As the team leader of Baidu Baike’s pop culture category, she spends three to four hours every day on average on the platform despite working full-time as a graphic designer in a property company.
Launched in 2006, Baidu Baike now has over 16 million entries written by more than 6.9 million users as of October 2019.