Press releases/Wikimedia and comScore partnership November 2009

Wikimedia and comScore partner to improve understanding of the reach and impact of free knowledge on the Web
Digital market intelligence leader expands Wikimedia’s global user research horizon

SAN FRANCISCO November 3, 2009 – Wikimedia Foundation today announced an on-going partnership with comScore that will help expand the Foundation’s awareness of global Web audience trends and demographics, particularly for top ten projects like Wikipedia. To support the partnership, comScore is providing access to its global Web measurement tool, Media Metrix, which the non-profit Foundation will use to augment its global site-usage statistics, interpret project participation and editing trends, and develop a long-term strategy to expand awareness and usage in new markets – such as Asia. comScore Media Metrix, recognized as the Internet industry’s leading online audience measurement tool, provides one of the most comprehensive global audience measurement systems available.

“Wikimedia has always had access to our server traffic logs, which report an astonishing amount of daily traffic – currently about 95 to 100 thousand requests per second. comScore Media Metrix provides something we can’t – recognized, industry standard, global measurement that helps us understand projects like Wikipedia alongside other major Web properties,” said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. “comScore is supporting our mission by helping us better understand our global audience, millions of dedicated users and hundreds of thousands of volunteer editors, and ultimately assists us in providing more free knowledge to established and emerging Internet populations. Every day I tell someone new that Wikipedia is a top five global Web property – valuable information we would not have known without comScore.”

In support of Wikimedia’s mission, comScore is also leveraging its recognized research experts to shed new light on trends and patterns in global projects. A recent examination of average user visit time demonstrated a uniquely high level of engagement with Wikimedia among Latin American Internet users, particularly in Mexico and Colombia, both among the top ten nations spending the most time on average visiting Wikimedia Foundation projects. Countries in the Asia Pacific region also featured prominently, with Japan as the highest engagement audience, and New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia also factoring in among the top ten. Trends such as these can only be understood by working from a large and highly representative audience sample. These data may inform new areas of focus for the Foundation’s software developers improving site usability and search functionality.

“We’re excited to be able to leverage our unique global audience measurement capability into a deeper understanding of how people around the world engage with a project of global importance like Wikimedia,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “Wikimedia’s mission of engaging people around the world to cultivate free educational content is one that endows people in every corner of the globe with the power of knowledge and information. comScore is proud to support such an important mission.”

comScore's objective data also helps the Foundation to tell its story, from Wikipedia's humble beginnings in 2001 to the present, and to direct limited organizational resources to areas of the world where it can make the greatest difference.

The Wikimedia Foundation and comScore anticipate more collaboration through the coming year and beyond. “comScore is such an ideal partner for Wikimedia,” said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Like us, they deeply concern themselves with the global population of Internet users, and they appreciate the significance of borderless projects like Wikipedia. By sharing their data with us, they’re also sharing these discoveries with everyone on the planet who wants to know more about how the Internet is growing, how people are learning, and perhaps most importantly, what barriers are preventing the free flow of knowledge and information.”

About comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and referred source of digital marketing intelligence.

About the Wikimedia Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization which operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 300 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide (June, 2009). Available in more than 265 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 12 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.

Press inquiries

 * For the Wikimedia Foundation
 * Jay Walsh
 * WikimediaFoundation.org
 * blog.wikimedia.org
 * +1 (415) 839 6885 x 609
 * jwalsh@wikimedia.org


 * For comScore
 * Andrew Lipsman
 * (312) 775-6510
 * press@comscore.com