The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Wikipedia, has reported a significant 8% year-over-year decline in human pageviews. The foundation attributes this downturn to fundamental shifts in how users, particularly younger generations, seek and consume information online, pointing to the growing influence of generative AI in search results and the dominance of social video platforms.
The AI And Social Media Effect
In a recent blog post, the foundation explained that the decline became apparent after an update to its bot detection systems, which clarified that a previous traffic surge was largely non-human. The core reasons for the drop in human visitors are twofold. Firstly, search engines are increasingly integrating generative AI to provide direct answers and summaries, reducing the need for users to click through to original sources like Wikipedia. Secondly, younger audiences are progressively turning to social video platforms such as TikTok and YouTube for information discovery, bypassing traditional web searches and websites entirely.
The Ripple Effect On The Knowledge Ecosystem
While knowledge from Wikipedia is still reaching people through these new channels, the foundation warns of significant risks associated with declining direct traffic. Fewer visits to the website could lead to a drop in the number of volunteer editors who create, update, and enrich the content. Furthermore, it could reduce the number of individual donors who financially support Wikipedia’s mission to provide free, accessible knowledge. This creates a challenging cycle where the very ecosystem that produces the information being summarized by AI is put at risk.
Implications For The MENA Tech Ecosystem
This global trend has specific and significant implications for the MENA region. Wikipedia serves as a critical repository for Arabic content online, a resource that is often less comprehensive than its English counterpart. A decline in its health could stifle the growth and accessibility of a trusted Arabic digital knowledge base. For the burgeoning AI sector in MENA, many startups developing Large Language Models (LLMs) and other tools rely on public data sources like Wikipedia. The call for better attribution and support is directly relevant to these companies, urging them to consider their role in sustaining the data ecosystems they leverage. Furthermore, with extremely high social media penetration in the region, the shift in user behavior away from the open web is likely even more pronounced, impacting how local startups and content creators strategize to reach audiences.
Wikipedia’s Call To Action
In response, the Wikimedia Foundation is urging AI, search, and social media companies that utilize its content to actively encourage more visitors to the encyclopedia itself. Internally, the organization is developing a new framework for attributing content sourced from its platform to ensure its origins are clear to the end-user. It also encourages readers to practice better digital literacy by looking for citations, clicking through to original sources, and supporting the human-curated knowledge platforms that underpin much of the modern internet.
About The Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects. Its mission is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. The foundation is funded primarily by donations from millions of individuals around the world.
Source: TechCrunch
