Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales chose mission over billions in ad revenue
thisguyknowsai · x · 2026-08-26
The story of Jimmy Wales, who founded Wikipedia after an internet argument led him to build a free encyclopedia. Following the slow progress of expert-written Nupedia, he launched Wikipedia in 2001 with a radical model allowing anyone to edit.
Despite becoming one of the world's most visited sites, Wales refused to monetize it through ads, establishing it as a donation-funded nonprofit to keep knowledge free and independent from commercial influence.
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