Amazon, Google, and Apple to Pay Wikipedia For Their Published Contents in the Future

Wikipedia, one of the most popular search sites in the world, will soon release its paid option for tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Google.

The so-called free encyclopedia will now generate revenue for the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that organizes and runs the Wiki site.

Wikipedia Will Now Charge Fees for the Tech Giants

While this option appears to be a premium subscription for its users, Wikipedia assures that people can still access the site for free. As the United States' 8th most visited website, publishing the contents will now change for the tech giants.

According to Wired, the Wikimedia Enterprise will be assigned for Wikipedia's branding. In that manner, the paid service will only impact the huge tech companies, which usually benefit from publishing on the site.

Moreover, the content provided by Wikipedia will now be commercialized to suit the needs of the tech giants, which cater to the needs of millions of people daily.

For example, if you ask Google about a single question, the search engine will show you a brief passage from Wikipedia on the search page. This way, all you have to do is to stay within Google Search webpage for your query.

In another instance, try to speak with Amazon Alexa or Apple's Siri. These digital assistants will tell you the answer straight from the archives of Wikipedia.

This is not only limited to search engines as YouTube also relies on Wikipedia specifically when it needs to combat widespread misinformation.

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Can the Voluntary Wikipedia Workers Benefit from This Move?

For Lisa Seitz-Gruwell, the Chief Revenue Officer of Wikimedia Foundation, using the content on the page is available to all users, but what's not good is when some companies take the opportunity to earn profit by not giving anything in return.

At the moment, several donations and grants keep the Wikimedia Foundation alive. The budget already reached $100 million and it will continue to grow as people want more information for free, Sea Mashable reported.

Despite Google's million-dollar donation, Wikipedia will still pursue the said company.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Amazon, on the other hand, did not donate even a single penny to the organization, according to a Tech Crunch interview with Gruwell in 2018. . Wikimedia Foundation said that the content coming from Wikipedia is being published in their systems, which is apparently done by the employees from the mentioned companies.

Since nonprofit organizations do not generate revenue, the paid option will pave the way for Wikimedia Enterprise to earn money from entities that also use its content.

Would this move benefit those workers who voluntarily work with Wikipedia? It could be possible, and it could work like an agency that gives incentives to its workers.

After all, researching topics and editing articles is not easy, so this is a good way to compensate them for their efforts.

This article is owned by Tech Times.

Written by Joen Coronel