Wikipedia is a free online information and knowledge encyclopedia. January 15, 2001, is the launch date and Wikimedia Foundation is the parent organization. It’s the most popular and the largest general reference work on the internet. Its creators are Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. In 2009 a banner launched saying “Wikipedia: Ad-free forever” was soon taken down. Alexa stated that Wikipedia is the 5th most visited website.
Unlike other sites, Wikipedia doesn’t raise revenue through ads. This makes its experience Ad-free. It collects revenue through donations. These donations are mostly made by various users around the world.
Wikipedia is known for its impressive knowledge bank. It’s very popular among students for its academic, historical, biographical, or any form of knowledge. Also, the website is available in all major languages. Another factor that makes it so accessible is its compatibility. The website runs perfectly on all computers and mobile generations.
Wikipedia has answers to every query. This simple website has complex not so traditional methods to operate.
How does Wikipedia work?
The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. So, Wikipedia runs by the contribution of over 250,000 volunteers around the globe. The count of paid employees is just 250. Furthermore, volunteers provide free service for the website. These volunteers are responsible for editorial work on the website. In this way, they maintain the editorial standard of the website. The volunteers also verify the information that’s uploaded on the website.
Altogether, Wikipedia was able to gather 50 million articles in 300 languages. All this work within 20 years. These volunteers around the world are responsible for the structure of the website. They include various engineers, editors, and other required personnel. They help Wikipedia run smoothly even through millions of search inputs per day. The experts of various industries constantly make changes in the data. This is the way of keeping the information as correct as possible.
By all this scenario, it seems this knowledge hub is actually a collective effort of even the users. As the language barrier is not there, the website is accessible to everyone.
Benefits of Wikipedia
Wikipedia provides an opportunity for anyone who wants to learn ways of footnotes, sourcing, peer review, etc. Indian flock uses wiki more than 750 million times a month. When it comes to academic use, Wikipedia itself doesn’t state itself as a reliable source. The reason behind it is the real-time changes made in the articles. These changes made can be vandalizing or wrong. Although there are frequent corrections made in those articles. But still can stay unnoticed for days, weeks, months, or even years.
Many universities don’t allow Wikipedia as a reference source for research papers and academic work. Nevertheless, Wikipedia has labeled Good Articles and Feature Articles. They are credible, advanced, and professional. So with the proper search, you can find trustworthy information for free.
Why does Wikipedia ask for donations rather than running ads?
According to the website’s page of Fundraising Statistics, this online encyclopedia has total assets of $165,641,425. Basically they were able to raise $28,653,256 in 2018-19. The website is able to run without any complications.
They achieved these numbers because of their fundraising campaigns. Users around the world willingly donate to the website. Recently Wikipedia launched their fundraising campaigns in India. This campaign was a red Dropbox on the website. The campaign requested users for their contributions.
“We ask you, humbly: don’t scroll away” was the message being displayed on every Wiki page.
This made everyone wonder if the most popular information website is going bankrupt. But the numbers on the fundraiser said otherwise. The spokesperson of the Wikimedia foundation clarified it to TheIndianExpress. He stated that Wikipedia is a website that hundreds of millions of people have come to rely on. They have a duty to ensure Wikipedia remains accessible, up to date, and relevant for its readers.
So it was clear that the organization is adopting a futuristic approach. Currently, though the number seems promising, for the future of the website, they may not. An entire foundation can’t rely on a particular donation group. There is always a risk involved.
Why did Wikipedia choose to be ad-free forever?
Being a non-profit organization there are many hurdles in the way. The main motto of the site was providing free information and knowledge worldwide.
The main reason is to maintain the quality of the website. Including ads will disrupt their quality. The website is known for its simple user-friendly interface. Adding ads can dissolve the simple interface factor.
Another reason is maintaining the privacy of users. Other websites run on the formula of using users’ cookies. These are actually used by Google to personalize ads according to the user. So there is always a risk of privacy involved. Just like Wikipedia, CSS Founder is also ad-free. CSS Founder keeps the data and details of the user private and safe, we don’t allow hackers to get your data by ads or by any means.
Unbiased Image- The information on Wikipedia is unbiased. Ads can put the integrity of websites at risk. Putting ads can let users question the reliability of the information. External influence can cause the site to take a load on its neutral aspect.
Moreover, donations are a far better option than ads. The other websites make a profit from ads on a PPC basis. These rates can be quite low. The users come for gaining additional information about the query. This makes the website low in terms of conversion rate. And also the ad revenue is enough for the website to run seamlessly.
The changing audience is another reason. The audience here comes for an ad-free experience. The Internet at this point is filled with paid links and ads. So the user appreciates the website efforts of not selling anything. This trust among the audience is not worth losing over ads. Despite having a huge traffic and quality audience, CSS Founder doesn’t run ads to generate money. The reason being, we don’t want to ruin our users’ experience.
Decreased risk of hacking – Ads can invite many hackers. Wikipedia being such a big platform has millions of users logging in every day. Hackers can find their way in with ads and external links. The users’ confidential information is also at risk. Altogether, Wikipedia has its reason for being Ad-free forever.
Being the best website design company in Dubai, Delhi NCR, Noida, Sweden, and all over the world, we understand our responsibilities of giving the best ad-free user experience, and to keep their data private. Thus it makes CSS Founder the best choice for the Website designing company for everyone all around the world.
