W13. Can Wikipedia disappear ? - Clément Chevallier

Wikipedia is one of the most famous and visited website in the world. Searching a piece of information on the online encyclopedia is become a reflex for many people. In addition, the community of Wikipedia is huge and loyal. For these reasons, I do not think Wikipedia can disappear overnight.

Nevertheless, some website are created and some others disappear everyday. No websites are immortal. Few years ago, nobody thought that MSN or Myspace could disappear, because there were really popular. However, it happend, because the context changed and new websites appeared, more convenient and trendy. So Wikipedia could disappear in the future because of the competition of other websites. It is the concept of the creative destruction described by the famous economist Schumpeter few years ago.

The disappearance of Wikipedia could also be explained by the lack of donation. Indeed, Wikipedia is totally free and does not use ads to earn money. So its survival depends on the donation of its users. If the amount is not enough to survive anymore, Wikipedia must change its business model and include some ads. Do you think it is a good solution ?

Clément Chevallier.

Comments

  1. Is adding advertisements to Wikipedia really a good idea? I am not sure. But even if Wikipedia loses its identity, shouldn't they accept changes if they are at risk of survival?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am not sure that adding ads is a good idea, because Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia and it is a real part of its identity. Maybe it is better to talk more about donations, to involve more Wikipedia users.

    ReplyDelete

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