Swot analysis of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online free encyclopedia. A US non-profit organization, Wikimedia Foundation, hosts Wikipedia. Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales laid the foundation of Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. The headquarter of Wikimedia is in San Francisco, California, USA.
Some of the main products and services of Wikipedia are;
- Personal service
- Social service
- Business service
- Free knowledge and learning
According to the ranking by Similar Web, Wikipedia is the world’s 7th most popular platform over the internet in 2023. The Visual Capitalist puts Wikipedia at the 5th position of the world’s most visited platform. The company provides its content for free and it doesn’t show any ads.
Wikipedia started as an English Language Encyclopedia. It later changed into Wikipedia when they began offering content in other languages. Wikipedia is the world’s largest encyclopedia in the English language comprising more than 6.3 million articles in the English language.
Some of the top competitors of Wikipedia are;
- worldbook.com
- reference.com
- Apps for Good
- edX
- Teach.com
- Cappex
Today, we’ll study the swot analysis of Wikipedia. Here we’re going to focus on the internal and external factors impacting the growth of the platform. Here’s the swot analysis of Wikipedia as follows;
Strengths of Wikipedia
Large Database of Users
According to an estimate, Wikipedia has approximately more than 1.7 billion monthly visitors to its platform. Out of which, 360,754 people are active users of the website and more than 94,368,279 people have registered to the company’s platform. The large numbers of users show the strength of the platform.
Content Source
Wikipedia provides a detailed list of all the external links at the end of every article so that the researchers and readers could verify the data from various sources. The full disclosure policy of the platform makes the readers trust the reliability and authenticity of the content.
Integrated Offers
Wikiversity, Wikibooks, Wiktionary, and many others are some of the main offers of Wikipedia. It means that the platform has diversified its service portfolio into various categories. The company isn’t relying on a single service.
Editing Access
Time Magazines reported in 2006 that the open-door edit policy of Wikipedia is one of its key strengths and makes the platform world’s biggest encyclopedia. It shows the flexible attitude of the management of the platform that they’re willing to learn and correct themselves.
Global Reach
Wikipedia provides content in 317 world languages. It means that everyone across the globe could access and interact with the platform without any linguistic barriers.
Free Content
According to an estimate, Wikipedia has published more than 6.3 million articles on various categories. The platform offers content for free without any requirement for registration. All the researched content on the platform is completely 100% ad-free.
Researching Place
Wikipedia is one of the world’s authentic and most reliable sources of information. YouTube and Facebook admitted the fact in 2018 that they refer their users to study Wikipedia articles regarding fake news.
Weaknesses of Wikipedia
Authenticity & Duplicity Issues
Many people have claimed that the content on Wikipedia is not duplicated and it’s biased and deceitful towards particular sects. It doesn’t provide you with the whole picture and two sides of the story. It’s because the platforms have multiple editors from different parts of the world. Their background bias manifests itself in many ways in their writings.
Controversial Topics
According to a report by Guardian in 2014 that the platform provides a more comprehensive reference list of female porn stars than accomplished women writers. A study by Oxford Internet Institute in 2009 showed that Wikipedia has an unequal distribution of topics in different categories. You’ll find a more detailed topic in specific categories than the rest.
Tech Language
Many people have claimed that some of the articles on Wikipedia contain tech language and have professional terminology. It makes it difficult for ordinary readers to fully grasp the concept of it. They say that the language should be user-friendly.
Opportunities available to Wikipedia
Editing Access
As we know that Wikipedia has an open-door editing policy and the platform allows everyone to openly correct the content. The platform should now increase the editorial and verification access to more people to deliver accurate content to the users.
Moderator Expansion
According to an estimate, Wikipedia has approximately more than 6.3 articles on its platform and they require consistent up-gradation. On the other hand, Wikipedia has a limited number of moderators and administrators, approximately 1112 to be more precise. The platform should add more moderators and administrators to manage the content.
Integration with Platforms
Wikipedia should make alliances in terms of integration with other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Forbes, LinkedIn, and many more. It means if any of those platforms need to guide their user about certain things, they would refer their users to Wikipedia. It would further increase the traffic on the platform.
Threats Wikipedia has to face
Obtaining Information Sources
Wikipedia usually gathers information from sources like mainstream TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. Many critics have questioned the authenticity and validity of the sources of Wikipedia’s content. It’s because the agenda of every news channel and newspaper is different and it could be right or left.
Competitors
Many independent and niche-focused portals have come into existence over the past decade. They have a specialty in one field and publish the content of professionals and experts in specific fields. Now some people prefer to read their content, instead of Wikipedia’s.
Misleading Content Sources
If Wikipedia’s content sources have made some mistake in publishing misleading content. The platform has published the same information from its misleading sources, and then it falls on the website. The source website has published misleading information about something else, then it’s difficult for the users to trust Wikipedia’s sources.
Conclusion: Wikipedia SWOT Analysis Example Company
After a careful study of the swot analysis of Wikipedia, we’ve concluded that Wikipedia is indeed the world’s largest online encyclopedia. The platform should verify the validity of its content sources so that critics won’t question its sources.
Ahsan Ali Shaw is an accomplished Business Writer, Analyst, and Public Speaker. Other than that, he’s a fun loving person.
