There are a couple of Chinese-native products like Wikipedia: Hudong and Baidu Baike, at least. They both have more articles than English Wikipedia, although I have no idea about their quality. And unlike Wikipedia they are for-profit companies. Anyone know of a good article that compares them in depth?
In the US we tend to look at the parallel Chinese Internet largely as a political question, censorship. But a primary reason China encourages homegrown products is simple economics. China isn't content to be a US economic colony, they build their own successful businesses.
Anecdotal evidence: most articles I find on Baidu Baike are copied straight out of Wikipedia, but many articles on Chinese topics have extra information added.
In the US we tend to look at the parallel Chinese Internet largely as a political question, censorship. But a primary reason China encourages homegrown products is simple economics. China isn't content to be a US economic colony, they build their own successful businesses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Wikipedia#Competitors