Where is the first place you go to find any information you want? Google, right? Yup, you’re right. Every single person goes to Google whenever they need information. It is a directory that holds all the important information that you’re looking for. For suppose you want to know information about Netflix, not about the app, but about the company. Where do you go too? Although there are hundreds of results that appear when you search on Google. You would check about this company on Wikipedia, right?
Wikipedia has become the world’s largest encyclopedia. From business to cryptocurrencies it consists of information about all the details. And it is not an exaggeration to say that you will find everything you’re looking for. Students to businesses everybody use it to gain the information. Yup, it is a saviour when you have to make presentations or research projects. You can find all the information necessary for you at one place about a particular topic, place or person.
There are two types of opinions about Wikipedia, one, it provides users with all the information they’re looking for. Two, it is unreliable as the source for the information is not revealed. No matter what your opinion is out of these two. One thing you cannot deny is the popularity of Wikipedia. Yup, it is popular across the globe.
Wikipedia was launched back in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Since its launch, it has come a long way. Now it has a registered user base of 33 Million. As you know everyone on the internet would have used Wikipedia at least once. This website has around 5.5 million articles. Not only that it has around 32.5 million editors who provide you with the latest information. They updated the pages to keep them up to date. On an average 600 new articles are published every single day in English.
Fun fact: Did you know that Wikipedia is available in around 298 language versions.
It has articles relating to all the topics that people are looking for. Have you never been curious about the business model of this website? You must have been right? Not any more. In this article, you will know about the business model of this article along with its income sources? Amazing right? What is waiting for?
Let’s jump straight into the topic then.
Page Contents
The business model of Wikipedia
First thing you must learn about Wikipedia is that this is an encyclopedia that is written by people who use it. Simply put, users are the people who contribute to it. They create the pages relating to the topic and update the information in case they find anything missing on the page. Yup, this is a brilliant idea. Don’t you agree? The volunteers across the world are contributing to this website and making data creation simple and easy. Thanks to their contribution, people across the globe are using this website to gain information.
As you see the business model of Wikipedia is quite easy to understand. The organization only works on handling the Wikipedia website, administration and servers. It doesn’t involve providing data. The data is provided by the users/ volunteers across the globe. But this brings us to the question. Who owns this website?
This is the question that is most commonly asked. Who owns this website? Who manages it serves and administration. The answer to this question is “The Wikimedia Foundation”. Yup, you heard it right. This is the foundation that owns Wikipedia. But one thing that people must know is that it is a non-profit organisation. There are many people who think that Wikipedia is managed by a non-profit organization. Yup, you’re right, it is managed by a non-profit organization.
Apart from this organisation supports many other websites that provide users with the knowledge for free. The vision of this foundation is to provide users with knowledge. Precisely they want to create a knowledge base that is free and available for people across the world. Some of the knowledge websites that it supports are Wiktionary, WikiBooks, MediaWiki, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, WIKIDATA, WikiVoyage, etc.
Will Wikipedia still be as relevant as today in the next 20 years? Well, that needs to be seen in the future. Because technology is changing every day and people try, you don’t know what the future of technology will be like. It is highly impossible to guess Wikipedia’s position in the future. Already Wikipedia is facing trouble because of the increasing smartphones.
Yup, with an increase in the smartphones the number of editors, visitors and content creators are considerably decreasing. Wikipedia is also planning to adapt to the changes in technology to meet the needs of its users. Wikipedia is providing its users with reliable, transparent and neutral information. Whenever you want to find adequate information about a topic.
The first go-to source is Wikipedia. Because you know that the information will neutral and transparent. So that is what Wikipedia will be striving for in the future too.
Since you have known about the foundation that owns Wikipedia. Aren’t you curious to know how it makes money? You are. Then without any further delay let’s jump straight into the topic.
How does Wikipedia make money?
As the foundation that runs Wikipedia is non-profit. Most of you must be curious about how this platform makes money? The answer to your question is Donations. In 2017 Wikipedia has earned a whopping sum of $91 Million. The most interesting thing is that this income didn’t come from affiliates, paid services or advertisements. Yup, you heard it right. All this sum has come from the Donations.
So now that you have understood the source of income. Let’s take about it in detail. This revenue model for this website is donation-based. They receive income in the form of donations from many websites, corporations and individuals across the globe. Apart from the donations, the other sources of income for this website include in-kind donations, Wikipedia store, Grants & Awards.
In-kind Donations
The in-kind donations of this website are another source of revenue. In-kind donations are in the form of equipment, supplies and services.
Website Support
The support to the website includes ongoing engineering improvement costs, research and design costs, product development costs, legal costs and server costs. This is where Wikipedia spends its revenue. Apart from this it also spends money on Governance and Administration, Fundraisings, etc.
Store
Yes, they make money through selling merch too. Users who are passionate about Wikipedia would really like to purchase their merch right. So the Wikipedia store is also an excellent source of income for them. In the merch, they sell mugs, notebooks, t-shirts, etc. If you want to get hands on their merch then visit Wikipedia’s official store.
Grants
The foundations also receive grants from third parties to keep the website running. Not only that Wikipedia raises money through fundraisers too. In most countries, an average donation of $15 is tax-deductible so most of the users are interested in donating money to this website. All the profit that websites make go straight to fund Wikipedia and other knowledge websites/projects of the foundation.
Wrapping up
Wikipedia is undoubtedly one of the most popular websites in the world. It has been providing users with information regarding all the topics. As you have already known this website is run by a non-profit foundation. And it mainly runs on the donations received from the users. Recently Wikipedia has been urging users to donate money to keep the site running.
You would have also seen the message on the Wikipedia pages you visited. Hope you understood about Wikipedia’s business model and how it makes money in detail. If you want to know more about business models. Then you’re at the right location. Check out other articles in the business model category and understand more about the business model of companies like Netflix and Uber.
