Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Google’s Sergey Brin Donates $500,000 To Wikipedia

The Wikimedia Foundation announced that the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, launched by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, have given half a million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia.


Wikipedia finances itself exclusively through donations and does not generate revenue through advertising. Wikimedia said that it currently reaches 477 million visitors globally, which makes Wikipedia the fifth most-popular web site in the world. According to Google’s DoubleClick ad planner, Wikipedia reaches about 23.9% of the Internet population and counts about 7.1 billion page views every month. Wikimedia said that Wikipedia currently holds more than 20 million articles in more than 280 languages. Its volunteer community has more than 100,000 contributors.

“This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual fundraising campaign this week,” said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, in a prepared statement. “This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for themselves and for everyone around the world. I am very grateful to Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what we do.”

 Ethan McKinney in Business on November 21

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