Referred to as China’s Wikipedia, Hudong.com is a Chinese-language online encyclopedia. The company is reportedly raising a $50 million third round of funding, sources told Fortune.
Created in 2005, Hudong.com calls itself the world’s largest Chinese-language wiki with 6.4 million entries. Like Wikipedia, the site houses articles on various topics and accepts submissions from the public.
At the beginning of June, Hudong.com announced a partnership with Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The partnership helps Hudong.com gain better search capabilities and gives Microsoft the chance to develop its search engine technology in other countries, which it needs to compete with Google.
Part of Hudong.com’s funding is being raised by online private investment platform Xpert Financial. Tim Draper, of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, sits on Xpert’s board and sent an email urging people to invest in Hudong.com.
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Hudong is China’s leading for-profit social knowledge platform – a wiki-enabled encyclopedia that monetizes its content through advertising. China is one of the largest and fastest growing internet and mobile markets in the world.
DFJ Dragon has invested in the Series A, B, and B-1 offerings, I have personally invested in the B and B-1 offerings—as have other leading venture capital firms—and we intend to participate in the Series C offering. I would urge you to consider this opportunity.
It appears, from the email that Fortune obtained, that Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s China fund, DFJ Dragon will be raising funds for Hudong.com as well.
Chinese money image via Flickr user Martin Kalfatovic
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