WIKIPEDIA’S INVESTMENT

PRESENTATION

• Free encyclopedia• Collects and summarizes information• Into over 250 different languages

• Information is provided world-wide•And can be edited by almost anyone

Competitive Advantage: Software – Prevents incorrect information being

added to database by allowing for others to make corrections

Wikipedia’s business offerings:

&

Jimmy Wales Larry Sanger

Founders :

Secret Weapon : Sue Gardner Had the

experience to make Wikipedia into a global company and continues to help the global expansion of Wikipedia

Industry Type : Consumer Internet

• With over 684 million users annually

• And in the excess of 10 million online articles

Wikipedia is one of the largest reference sites in the world

Key Strengths• It is free to use and available for everyone

to contribute

•Encourages peer review

•Covers an incredibly broad range of topics

•Accessible from any place since it is online, you just need an internet connection

Key Strengths

•You can write new articles

•You can find good information on variety of subjects

•It is user friendly

•Articles are written by different people from different perspective

Key Weaknesses

•The content is not 100% reliable

•Some articles are incomplete

•It is subject to abuse in the authenticity of articles and content

•There isn’t any editorial review

Issues facing Wikipedia

•Editorial Political Controversy

•Stagnant Editors

•Declining Donations

•Obsolete Editorial Tools

. . .Issues Continued

•The anti – piracy bills SOPA and PIPA can force Wikipedia to shut down.

---> recently, Wikipedia has blocked out its English version of the website to voice concern over legislation in the US congress.

Main CompetitorsKnol•Short for knowledge.•Goal was to cover all topics from science to medicine

and history.•Allows users to create web pages.•Permitted readers to submit comments, rate pages and

suggest changes.•Developed by Google

Knol – Shutting Down

•Google announced that Project Knol would be phased out

•Will be replaced by WordPress, based Annotum•Knol will be closed on April 30, 2012, •Content deleted by October 1, 2012

Veropedia

•Founded by Danny Wool ▫ Ex Employee of Wikipedia

•Plan was to take articles from Wikipedia , Verify the accuracy (ie: Quality of Content) to draw

the ‘traffic’•Republish on both Wikipedia & Veropedia.

Veropedia - Features

•Difference

▫ to Wikipedia is articles on Veropedia cannot be edited by the public.

Citizendium•Founded by Larry Sanger

▫ Ex Wikipedia Employee•Aims to:

▫CLEAN up Wikipedia’s articles

•But, this notion did not work out, •required him to start at the beginning.

Citizendium- Features

•Difference

▫With Citizendium , ▫ Anonymous editing is NOT Allowed.

Benefits of Wikipedia

•Great Exposure

•First Mover Advantage

•Reputation Management

• Increased Trust