A new Chinese website turns ideas into cash. The big bucks aren t rolling in yet, but Wu Chong discovers it has great potential

We are in the blossoming Information Age. Want to know about the Star Wars movie series? You can Google it. Want to buy them? You can search Amazon. However, what if you want to sell your own script of a new episode? Now, you can Witkey it.

Witkey, short for "the key to wisdom," was originally a word Liu Feng created to name his avant-garde interactive problem-solving website www.witkey.com on which people can sell their ideas, or wisdom, at a certain price, as well as post a reward for the best proposals.

Ambitious founder

Today, the word "witkey" has more extensive connotations in China s Internet industry. It refers to a new e-commerce model knowledge for cash. Its success has spurred many copycats, including www.zhubajie.com.cn and www.taskcn.com.

In addition, the word "witkey" has come to stand for those keen to earn extra money by meeting challenges posted online.

"I wanted to build a virtual market for knowledge trading," Liu said.

Liu based the website on the trendy Web2.0 a concept encouraging the use of various technologies to allow greater netizen participation online.

"I think the Internet is not only a network of computers, but also one of human minds. So its value should not only be the free sharing of resources, which though has stimulated its development. As it grows, the resource providers must require some rewards."

The former programmer came up with the idea while pursuing an MBA degree at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005.

"I presented it in class and won support from my teachers and classmates," he said. So he started constructing the website in June 2005 and finished a prototype in six months.

Currently, www.witkey.com has more than 310,000 registrants and adds about 1,000 every day. The site receives more than 25,000 daily visits.

These registrants, including individuals and corporate users, post their questions or problems online in search of answers, with different rewards. Other members post their answers or proposals below, and the challengers select the winners.

Registrants include their strengths in their personal profiles. The website then uses this information to build maps of Witkeys, or people with particular skills.

"It is useful and interesting," said Zhu Zhongqiang, an employee of an electronic company in Henan Province, who once posted a request on the website.

Zhu offered 30 yuan ($3.8) to anyone who could find a way to ensure that a photo would remain the first in order among Baidu search results. The next day, another Witkey posted the answer.

There are now more than 10,000 posts on the website responding to various requests. Most of them seek the best names for babies, companies or books, and the best logo designs. Some are interesting, such as the search for an antithetical phrase to a given phrase. Some sound crazy, such as: "Who can help me find a way to gather 35,000 yuan ($4,500) within three days?"

Often, respondents are just as enthusiastic about the site as requesters.

"It is a good way to express ourselves and display our strength and wisdom," said Wang Xiaobo, a Tsinghua University student who twice won rewards on Witkey.

Wang made his first fortune of 60 yuan ($7.7) for proffering the best birthday party proposal, and his second of 90 yuan ($11.5) for giving suggestions about a research topic for another student.

"The money isn t much and is less important. I love the feeling of winning a challenge and the satisfaction of helping people," Wang said.

However, the active participation of so many net surfers and the flood of compliments from domestic media still fall short of Liu s expectations.

Greater plans

According to Liu s design, Witkey must operate as a two-way model. In addition to answering questions, it should also help people to auction their ideas, products or any other valuable information.

For example, people can sell their inventions or useful research findings on the website, or a book or a song they ve written.

But currently, only the request function is working well.

One of the reasons, according to Liu, is that so far, Witkey is more of an experimental project than a real profit-making business.

"I want it to grow step by step and finally grow into a more feasible and mature model for the future development of similar websites," he said.

Today, he runs a blog on sina.com.cn to seek netizens feedback about the best direction for Witkey s future.

He is dissatisfied with the relatively small number of corporate members, who, in his opinion, must fuel the growth of the website.

"They can provide really good rewards for more value-added topics," Liu said.

Clearly, he is ambitious to turn his website into a large logistical center of top-notched resources, rather than just a free market where people bargain for trinkets.

He has tried to steer the site in that direction by posting himself.

"Once I asked a friend of mine to put his invention online for a possible corporate partner, although the feedback turned out to be little," Liu said. 

The founder is also scratching his head for a perfect game plan for this new e-business.

"It must be simple and fair for both sellers and buyers. At the same time, the website, as the agent, must gain profits," he said.

It is never easy and there are so many questions. For example, how can the site ensure the challengers will honor their promised rewards? How does the site testify to the sellers that they have something worth the price

Currently, the website is trying a Y Rule Liu developed. It is a rule based on the assumption that everyone is grateful, responsible and would like to maintain a fair trading environment to guarantee the garnishing of more help.

Under the rule, the website divides posts into two types: one for free exchange without any guarantees from the website and the other where the challenger must first deposit the prize money into the website s account before posting a request.

If the challenger fails to select a winner in the end, the website will pay 10 percent of the money for one randomly chosen participant as a reward. Lu Benfu, an Internet business expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, lauded Witkey as a new and innovative area in the industry, but still questioned whether it would gain enough growth space in the future.

"It is a worthwhile exploration after all," he said.

(China Daily 01/11/2007 page20)