Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)

We have had falling readership for years now (when it comes to health
content at least). And yes lately this has picked up. People are turning to
AI for answers, Google "search engine" now provides AI answers at the top
and then the rest is mostly adverts and their partner Mayo Clinic.

We missed video, when Youtube exploded in popularity as a learning
platform. We had a collaboration with Ozmosis for video content but the
community sent them away. We are only just now developing infrastructure to
determine if people watch the small number of videos we currently have
(with some saying this is not needed as they believe the answer is few).

Yes we are turning into a niche product. The internet has turned into a
walled garden, with folks staying within their apps like Twitter, Facebook,
Youtube, Instagram, etc.

But what should we do? Some of us are working on introducing limited video
but growth is slow. We fund abstract Wikipedia to the toon of millions.
Revolutionary projects are hard to invent. This is not something the WMF
can solve. But us being more of a niche project is also not the end of the
world.

James

On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 5:32 PM Christophe Henner via Wikimedia-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> 3 months later, a new statistic: mobile page views dropped by 19% in one
> year.
>
> We are back to the mobile traffic levels of 2018.
>
> https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading/total-page-views/normal|bar|2016-01-01~2026-04-28|(access)~mobile-app*mobile-web+agent~user|monthly
> <https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading/total-page-views/normal%7Cbar%7C2016-01-01~2026-04-28%7C(access)~mobile-app*mobile-web+agent~user%7Cmonthly>
>
> At this rate, our mobile traffic in 2026 will be at the levels of
> pre-2013. 2013...
>
> In the meantime, Ericsson is reporting a global mobile usage growth of
> over 20%
>
> https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report/dataforecasts/mobile-traffic-update
>
> When I published my essay, I mostly received gentle to aggressive push
> back. Back then I was displaying a 8% drop. Now a 20% year over year.
>
> Why did I pick mobile traffic? Because historically bots are less using
> desktop browser UAs which makes the data a bit more reliable for trends.
>
> 3 months ago I said we had 24 months ahead of us before irrelevancy. Well
> at this rate, in two years we will have lost half of our traffic. And the
> sad part is that those downhill trends tend not to slow down.
>
> And what now? Well being very blunt, there's only one body in our movement
> that can muster leadership, energy and resources to tackle this topic head
> on, that's the board of trustees.
>
> And if 20% doesn't trigger fast and real actions, I have no idea what
> would.
>
> PS: yes this email is written with a lot of emotion, but minus 20% YoY
> should trigger that reaction in everyone.
>
> --
> Christophe
>
>
> On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 at 00:40, Christophe Henner <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> I struggled with the object, the most honest one would be "Last exit
>> before irrelevance" but that would be a bit violent.
>>
>> So, Wikipedia turns 25 next week. I've been here for over twenty of those
>> years, including stints chairing Wikimedia France and the Foundation Board.
>> And honestly? I'm worried. Scared to be honnest.
>>
>> Over the last years, I've been regularly crunching data and sharing on
>> different channels my worries. But in the last few weeks I decided to make
>> a much more structured "essay" of my findings
>>
>> Since 2016, the internet nearly doubled in size.
>>
>> Our page views? Down. New editor sign-ups? Down 36%.
>>
>> The people keeping this thing running are working harder than ever, but
>> there are fewer of them every year.
>>
>> I wrote it all up: the numbers, what I think went wrong, what I think we
>> need to do about it. Fair warning: it's long, it's opinionated, and some of
>> it will probably make you mad.
>>
>> *Here it is: *https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Schiste/what-now
>>
>> I'm not trying to be doom and gloom for the sake of it. I genuinely
>> believe we have maybe two years to make some hard calls about AI, about
>> money, about who we're actually serving. After that, the window closes and
>> we become irrelevant.
>>
>> Could be wrong. Hope I am. But I'd rather we have this argument now than
>> wish we had later. Well I'd rather we had this argument two or four years
>> ago, but now we will make do.
>>
>> Read it, tell me where I'm off base. Let's argue and debate. That's what
>> talk pages are for, right?
>>
>> PS: Foundation board mailing list is bcc'ed, change cannot happen without
>> their commitment. And fast.
>>
>> --
>> Christophe
>>
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-- 
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian

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