The Internet is heavily patrolled by Chinese government censors. Content that could be deemed sensitive or graphic often disappears from Web sites soon after posting.

Hudong uses different wiki software from Wikipedia's MediaWiki. Hudong's in-house software, called HDWiki, is also used on 10,000 other Chinese Web sites and internally in many companies, Pan said.

Hudong aims to become profitable next year, drawing revenue from advertising and from paid support services the company plans for HDWiki, which is open source and free to download, said Pan. The wiki software was the first developed in China, he said.

Hudong's wiki software has helped it grow. Videos and Adobe Flash applications appear more often on Hudong than on Wikipedia because it is easier to incorporate multimedia in the Chinese wiki, said David Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia, a Beijing technology consultancy.

It makes sense to offer social networking on a wiki, software that is social by nature, Wolf said.