In the number of times the website is accessed5th in the worldhas become (formal)greatest ... in historyWikipedia, the encyclopedia of Wikipedia. Although it has been in existence for more than 20 years, readers as of 2024,More than 300languages, with a total ofMore than 60 millionarticles freely available online.allWorldwide viewsschool (e.g. of ikebana)monthly25 billion timesexceeded.

The name Wikipedia means "a system in which an unspecified number of users collaborate to edit content directly from a web browser.The "wiki" is a combination of "wiki", which means "encyclopedia", and "pedia", which means "encyclopedia".through a connectionIt was created (*1). In other words, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can editlike.

How did Wikipedia come to be so widely used and what challenges does it face? In this first article, we will look at Wikipedia's growth, languages, and trends in the number of articles.

Wikipedia logo (Photo:Harleen Quinzellová / Wikimedia Commons[.CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed])

Growth of Wikipedia

Wikipedia was founded in 2000.NuPediaIt branched out from an online encyclopedia called Although Neupedia was written and edited exclusively by experts, the speed at which articles were gathered was slow and difficult. Therefore, another project was proposed in which anyone could write and edit, and WikipediaandIt was born. In a short period of time, the content grew as it attracted many participants to write and edit. One of the reasons for the speed of growth was that we provided a simple platform that was easy to use without relying too much on novel technology, which led to a significant increase in content.primary factorIt is said to be.

The number of people doing editing work for free around the world has grown enormously, and the number of accounts used for writing and editing in 2023 will be100 millionexceeded.On the other hand,Among them, accounts used only once or not currently in use are included, and so-called active users who have had editorial activity in the past month are280,000 peopleThe number of companies that have been affected by the earthquake has remained at about 1.5 times the level of the previous year.

The policy of providing all content free of charge and carrying no advertising is also believed to have contributed to the increase in readership. Because Wikipedia is primarily a volunteer effort, the project was achieved at a relatively low cost, but against the costs required for the servers and the compensation of the staff who manage the site.school (e.g. of ikebana)and raised donations and grants. Wikipedia and relatedProject(*2) in 2003 to manage the operations and finances of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikimedia FoundationTheEstablishmentThe first time the company was founded, it was a small company.

The Wikimedia Foundation is financially solvent and wealthy enough to continue its activities for many years without further income.pointing outThere is a 2022-2023 fiscal year in which theApprox. 170 million U.S. dollarsdonations, some of which came from other large foundations, major corporations, and billionaires.Contains.The Wikimedia Endowment Fund (Wikimedia Endowment Fund) In addition to the Wikimedia Foundation, the Wikimedia Endowment Fund (Wikimedia Endowmenthas also been established, with savings of approximately US$120 million in 2023.reportThe company has been

People editing Wikipedia (Finland) (Photo:Wikimedia Finland / Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed])

Relationship with Search Engines

Another reason for Wikipedia's success is its relationship with search engines. As of 2007, the search engines that direct visitors to Wikipedia70%.were reportedly via search engines. Search engines, on the other hand, need a vast amount of content to provide to their users. Wikipedia became valuable to the search engines in that it provided compiled information on all topics free of charge. It also had the advantage that the format in which the information was provided was standardized, and a large amount of new information was added every year. As such, theWikipedia and search engines in the background of thesymbiotic relationshipwas born. Google, the world's largest search engine, recognized the value of Wikipedia and since 2010 has made a major donation to the Wikimedia Foundation.offerThe company has been doing this for a number of years.

When search engine users perform searches, pages provided by Wikipedia appear in search engine results at a very high rate. A 2021 study of three search engines, Google, Bing (provided by Microsoft), and DuckDuckGo, found that searches in which common search terms were entered80-84%.Wikipedia page appeared on the first page of the search results in the Why does the Wikipedia page appear there? The search engine algorithms appreciate that many other websites link to the Wikipedia page.pointand that because each Wikipedia page is frequently edited and updated, it is seen as the latest information preferred by search engine algorithms.pointBut the reason for this is thatIt can be mentioned.

However, Wikipedia pages do not appear only in the search engine's normal list of search results. The information boxes that appear next to search results, for example (Knowledge PanelWikipedia articles also appear frequently on the Wikipedia page of the search engine (see Figure 1). In other words, search engines not only introduce users to other websites with the information they want, but also allow them to obtain the information they want from the search engine page itself through the information box containing the Wikipedia information. This trendGoogle (WWW search engine), ,bing, ,Duck Duck Go.This can be found in any of the search engines in the

Wikipedia's information box at the top of the Duck Duck Go search results (Photo: Virgil Hawkins)

Wikipedia is also used by major tech companies outside of searches conducted from a web browser. Information from Wikipedia is also frequently used by voice assistants that allow users to verbally ask for information. For example, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, ,Wikipedia and the related project Wikidata as a source of information.useThe company is doing so.

Furthermore, since 2018, some social networking services (SNS) have also begun to use information from Wikipedia. For example, on Google's YouTube (YouTube), videos deemed by the company to be of questionable authenticity, or in which misinformation or false information is expected to be found, have been accompanied by information from relevant Wikipedia articles.displayThe search results are directed to the relevant page in Wikipedia. In addition, it is expected that information from Wikipedia will appear in search results on TikTok, which is operated by ByteDance, after 2023.reportThe company has been

The vast amount of information that Wikipedia publishes is gathered and edited by volunteers, and this is how the giant tech company is able to enhance its services and increase its profits.be beyond one's controlThey are being used. While these companies have made donations to Wikipedia, they have used Wikipedia's information essentially for free. However, with the continued use of information boxes and video supplements, Wikipedia has finally begun to offer paid content.Wikipedia.In 2021., ,Wikimedia Enterprises, Inc.Wikimedia Enterprise), and the following year Google Inc. established itsclientThe company has become a major player in the Wikipedia market. This paid content is also a new source of revenue for Wikipedia.

Wikipedia around the world

Wikipedia was first published in English in January 2001, but was quickly converted to multiple languages. Within a year of its creation.10 or moreNew Wikipedias in other languages in theLaunched.Eventually, it grew to Wikipedia in more than 300 languages. However, a comparison of the overall number of Wikipedia articles shows that European languages are themajorityaccounted for the overwhelming majority, with 6.79 million articles on the English Wikipedia as of 2024. Languages with the second most articles after English include Cebuano (6.12 million articles), German (2.89 million articles), Arabic (2.84 million articles), and French (2.59 million articles).

Cebuano is one of the languages of the southern Philippines, and the article is directly translated from the English Wikipedia by an automatic translation system.translationThe number of articles has risen to such a high level because of the number of articles in the Arabic Wikipedia. Many of the articles on the Arabic WikipediabackgroundThere are sometimes three different Arabic versions of Wikipedia: Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Moroccan Arabic. In addition, many articles in the Arabic Wikipedia are from the EnglishtranslationThe company has been

Thus, in terms of the number of published articles, the English Wikipedia accounts for a large percentage, but in terms of the number of views, itsratiowill further increase. The English Wikipedia is the most viewed Wikipedia in the world.approximately halfThe number of Wikipedians from English-speaking countries accounts for This is due to the fact that the number of views from English-speaking countries accounts for the world's total Wikipedianumber of pages viewed(at sentence-end, falling tone) indicates a confident conclusionmajorityin the year 2024.point in timeThe top five countries in the world with the most views are the United States (about 3 billion views/month), Japan (about 910 million views/month), Germany (about 890 million views/month), the United Kingdom (about 880 million views/month), and India (about 860 million views/month).

However, there are also some countries where English is not necessarily the most widely spoken language, but where the English Wikipedia is viewed in large numbers. For example, the most spoken language in India is Hindi, with a population of44%.has this language as its first language. However, as of 2017, Wikipedia articles viewed from India92%.was the English Wikipedia article. The same trend exists in Nigeria. There are over 500 languages spoken in Nigeria, with Hausa being the most widely spoken first language (of the population31%.). However, as in India, most of the Wikipedia pages viewed in Nigeria (97%.is the English Wikipedia.

In addition to language preferences, however, national government policies also affect the number of Wikipedia views worldwide. For example, Chinese is the most spoken first language in the worldLanguageDespite the fact that the Chinese Wikipedia is the most viewed Wikipedia, the Chinese Wikipedia is the most viewed Wikipedia.8th placeThis is the case. A major reason for this is that the Chinese government has banned access to Wikipedia in mainland China, blocking each Wikipedia sitefactThere are Russia and Myanmar also have domestic access to theblock (lump of something)It is believed to be doing so. Saudi Arabia and Iran have also partially blocked it. In the past, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan have alsoblock (lump of something)I have done the following.

Bias based on number of articles

Thus, Wikimedia has a total ofMore than 60 millionarticles online. However, information about any event, place, or person in the world is not always provided in a balanced manner. Regional balance and gender balance are particularly problematic in the distribution of Wikipedia articles.

In terms of regional balance, the number of articles related to the Global North, which is comprised of high-income countries, outnumbers those related to the Global South, which is comprised of low-income countries. 2014surveyfound that 84% of location-specific Wikipedia articles published in any language were about Europe and North America.Allregion, information on sub-Saharan Africa is the mostscarceThe survey found that the number of African countries in the world is increasing. The study found that Africa'swhichnumber of articles about Antarctica than the country.It was a lot.Of the total number of edits to all articles, articles about five countries - the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and France - accounted for 45% of the total number of edits. The number of edits made to articles related to the Netherlands was the same as the number of edits made to articles related to Africaof the article for all countries in theNumber of edits.above averageThe following is a list of the most common problems with the

Heatmap showing the location of Wikipedia article topics with identified regions (2013) (Photo:Kolossos / Wikimedia Commons[.CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed])

On the other hand,In the decade since this study, the situation is improving. Wikipedia used to publish 20 times as many articles about Europe as about Africa, but by 2022 the difference will be four times as largeIt was shrinking.The However, biasschool (e.g. of ikebana)Still big. 2022.surveyfound that 62% of the articles about people on Wikipedia in more than 25 languages were about people from five countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and France. In addition, from among all the articles on Wikipedia, the following are the most highly rated in terms of content and are listed on the top pagedisplayIt can be done.Featured Articleswill be selected. for the English Wikipedia in 2022.surveyIn the "Global South" section, less than 10% of the regionally identified high-profile articles were about the Global South.

Gender-related bias in Wikipedia is also significant. For example, as of 2023, Wikipedia had about 2 million articles about people, but articles about women wereone-fifthThe number of women was limited to only Furthermore, among articles about people who already have articles on Wikipedia, women are also the most likely to have their articles removed for insufficient "prominence," according to thesurveyThere are also Gender bias is also observed in the content of each article. For example, in the Wikipedia article on a person, the chapter on women's career history contains more descriptions of their personal lives, such as "marriage," than that of men.surveyresults.

Workshop on editing Wikipedia as a group on the theme of art and feminism (Photo:MU Hybrid Art House / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed])

What's behind the bias

This imbalance in the information provided by Wikipedia is not necessarily due to the Wikipedia organization alone. Historically, European countries, for example, have controlled most of the world through colonization, and even the language used in each region is often referred to as the "language of the world" or "language of the world.I changed it.It also exploits resources and other resources from its colonies and wealthindicates object of desire, like, hate, etc.concentrated in the countries of the current Global North. This, in part, has already led to a significant bias in the quantity of historical records that make up Wikipedia's material. The same is true of the historical gender imbalance in the world.of historical record.subject (of taxation, etc.)are predominantly male.

However, historical bias continues to take over today for a variety of reasons. The people who write and edit Wikipedia articlesmostlylive in the Global North. This is due to the fact that, compared to the Global South, the so-calleddigital divideand other factors such as household income and the comparatively high affordability of writing for free. Authors in the Global North.concentrationThen, the topics that will be chosen are alsothereConcentration. For example, the topics that people choose to write for Wikipedia are often related to their own cultural identity.surveythere (place physically distant from both speaker and listener)This trend is particularly noticeable in the Japanese and English editions of Wikipedia. This trend is particularly noticeable in the Japanese and English versions of Wikipedia. In terms of gender, about 70% of the people who write and edit on Wikipedia are women.85%.is considered to be male.

Wikipedia to eliminate this bias,More than 200The "Wiki Project" of the "Wiki Project" exists, though,To resolutionThe road to the "Mere Old Man" is a long one. Wikipedia is the world'sAny locationfrom (e.g. time, place, numerical quantity)Information.The balance that can be gathered is also important, but to what extent can the whole picture of the world be conveyed to the reader?the point thatis also important. How much can Wikipedia improve the current situation in the future?

［Click here for Wikipedia and its challenges (Part 2)]

1 "Wiki" originally means "fast" in Hawaiian.meaningThe word "pedia" was originally an ancient Greek word meaning "to grow up.meaningand used in education-related contexts.

2 In addition to Wikipedia, Wikibooks, which offers free online books (Wikibooks), a wiktionary consisting of online dictionaries published in 170 languages (Wiktionary), Wikimedia Commons, which provides copyright-free images, videos, music, and more (Wikimedia CommonsFourteen projects are in operation, including

Writer: Virgil Hawkins

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