Pinterest copycat sites flood China

Months after new social media website Pinterest has taken off, copycat sites are flooding the web in China, BBC News reported today. 

The clone sites come after the news earlier this year that Pinterest has seen wild success, with nearly 12 million users signing up in January. 

In response, a Chinese tech company then introduced Fa Xian, a Pinterest-like site that also lets users shop. The site lures 60,000 visitors a day, Reuters reported. 

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But the most popular Pinterest clone in China is a start-up called Mogujie, Tech in Asia reported. The site has 9.5 million registered users.

One of its top competitors is called Wantu, another social photo-sharing platform that "looks and acts a lot like Pinterest," Tech in Asia said. 

So far, there are about 20 Pinterest clones total in China, the BBC reported today. Some of the copycat sites are similar to Pinterest, while others, such as Fa Xian, change the interface to also let users purchase products.

Lu Yang, a Chinese BBC World Service journalist, told the BBC that though clone sites are popular in China, that they also suppress creativity. "We are great at cloning, everyone knows that," Yang told the BBC.  "But as long as we continue copying other people's designs, we will never start coming up with anything original."