What Makes Wikipedia Work? The Incredible Economics of Wikipedia

How did Wikipedia become the world’s fifth most visited website? Its volunteer editors play a huge role (with a small portion of them providing the vast majority of the content), as do its administrators and bots. WikiProjects also coordinate volunteer efforts by improving articles of interest (and helping some become featured articles). Fundraising campaigns that seek donations through banner ads also help, but won’t make or break the encyclopedia at this point as the Wikimedia Foundation has successfully created a $100 million endowment. The world’s biggest encyclopedia’s success is stunning given that it hasn’t run ads since it was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001.