Big tech's been in the headlines even more than usual this week. First Tesla became the newest member of the trillion dollar club. Then Microsoft and Google reported some truly staggering quarterly numbers. Then Amazon and Apple reported some less staggering numbers. Then Facebook changed its name (to Meta).
But there's one internet property that rarely hits the headlines, despite reaching billions of people around the world. It also doesn't directly monetize its reach or influence: Wikipedia.
Check the Wiki
The English version of the online encyclopedia gets a little over 7.5 billion hits a month — roughly one visit for every single person on the planet per month.
That's a number that could, even at a conservative estimate, be worth tens or even hundreds, of millions of dollars in advertising revenue every month. Fortunately for all of us, Wikipedia has remained not-for-profit, relying on donations to fund its operations.
Last year the Wikimedia Foundation (the foundation behind Wikipedia and the other "wiki" projects) reported income of $129m, 93% of which came from donations and contributions, which helped to fund its 550 strong workforce.
