25 years of Wikipedia
From dial-up days to now, travel through Wikipedia's history.
Today, Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet—but everything has to start somewhere. For Wikipedia, that was a blank website and a dream.
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DATE ... January 15, 2001
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Welcome to Wikimedia Foundation!
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The backbone
of knowledge
on the
internet
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00:00
Editor Robert Sim: Why Wikipedia is trusted
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia—it provides educational material to everyone. The twist is that volunteer editors write it all.
Those volunteers fact check the information and cite trustworthy sources, and are committed to documenting information from a neutral point of view.
Wikipedia seeks to inform, not persuade. In 2025, Wikipedia is there for all the people looking to expand their knowledge about a rapidly changing world. It has 65 million articles across over 300 languages, updated by nearly 250,000 volunteer editors, all of which are viewed nearly 15 billion times per month. That's nearing two views per month for every human on the planet.
Wikipedia's
increasing
size
Wikipedia's articles over the years 65+ million
As Wikipedia's volunteer communities grew in number and languages, its coverage did too. This can be illustrated with data from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports Wikipedia: months before Wikipedia celebrated its first birthday, volunteers were authoring thousands of new articles every month. By the end of 2002, that jumped to tens of thousands—and by early 2005, it was in the hundreds of thousands.
The world is
changing
In a world where paywalls and advertising have become the norm, Wikipedia's free, reliable knowledge that anyone can access, share and create is more valuable than ever. It remains one of the most-visited websites in the world.
Still, Wikipedia is confronting a challenging environment. Information integrity is being contested as distrust in media and institutions trends up. Wikipedia's knowledge is also increasingly being used and consumed by generative AI tools, search engines, social media platforms, and other technologies without attribution. That means that while Wikipedia continues to be a vital source of trusted information, it's becoming less visible to those who use its content on other websites.
Wikipedia will need your continued support as it looks beyond its 25th anniversary. We invite you to read on to learn a little bit about Wikipedia, its core values, and the volunteers who write it.
Wikipedia's
volunteers
Rabbit hole crew - WikiChat
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
[Citation_needed! has signed on]
Citation_needed!: hey!! 🌼 anyone around?
wikiCat123: hiiii! ✨ just finished dinner + ready 2 edit
TinyFootnote: fixing commas… everywhere… so many commas
wikiCat123: Our hero! 😭💕
Citation_needed!: Yay! 1 edit can make a difference!
wikiCat123: It was so fun to edit together at the editathon
TinyFootnote: Pics or it didn't happen 😜
Citation_needed!: I wanna seeeeeeeeee
wikiCat123: Sending....
[Citation_needed! is typing...]
Unlike many other internet projects, Wikipedia invites everyone to participate.
KS edit-a-thon 2017.jpg
Everyone doubted it. Even today, people say that it works in practice but not in theory. And yet, what could have been a disaster proved to be precisely what Wikipedia needed to succeed.
Unlike many other internet projects, Wikipedia invites everyone to participate.
Everyone doubted it. Even today, people say that it works in practice but not in theory. And yet, what could have been a disaster proved to be precisely what Wikipedia needed to succeed.
Group photo at Wikimania 2025.jpg
Who would devote untold numbers of hours to writing words on Wikipedia?
It's people who have a love for facts. Who believe in the power of knowledge. Who care enough to debate the best title for an article about yogurt/yoghurt.
Their work represents almost 25 years of humanity at its best—the humans of today, organizing themselves to benefit the humans of tomorrow.
AfroCuration December.jpg
The five pillars
A pivotal part of Wikipedia's story, the five pillars set it on the path to become one of the most trusted parts of the internet.
These pillars did more than create a blueprint for the content; they created the foundation on which Wikipedia can evolve.
The five pillars of Wikipedia
Consensus and
collaboration
There is one more cornerstone on which Wikipedia was built: decision-making through consensus. People from different backgrounds, perspectives, and political persuasions debate and disagree in entirely transparent processes; every edit can be seen in article history pages, and every discussion point can be seen in talk pages.
Consensus decisions can apply to all sorts of questions. The English Wikipedia has had lengthy debates over whether Kate Middleton's wedding dress should have an article about it (yes), whether the "i" in "Star Trek Into Darkness" should be lowercase (no), if new AI-generated articles without human review should be automatically eligible for quick deletion (yes), and many more.
Collaboration and consensus were also on display in selecting Wikipedia's branding. Wikipedia's visual and audio identities were selected from thousands of submissions sent in by people from all around the world, with and without relevant professional backgrounds. The visual logo, Wikipedia's famous globe, was strongly debated in 2003. A few of the proposed alternatives can be seen on this page.
Increasingqualitystandards
Content quality policies on all Wikipedias expanded as the sites grew. One important moment in English Wikipedia's history came after the 2005 discovery of a hoax article about journalist John Seigenthaler. Wikipedia volunteers quickly tightened their content quality guidelines. Citations, similar to those used in academic papers, were added to ensure information could be verified against reliable resources. Specific protections were instituted for biographies of living people.
BLP.jpg
Wikipedia: Biographies of living persons
By the end of that year, the prestigious journal Nature ranked Wikipedia as being on par with Encyclopedia Britannica on scientific topics.
Feat_content.jpg
Featured articles are considered to be some of the best articles Wikipedia has to offer, as determined by Wikipedia's editors.
Today, Wikipedia is widely recognized for its overall quality. On many language editions, the highest quality articles are given a special "featured" designation.
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Researcher Leila Zia: Volunteers built Wikipedia
Improving
software &
readability
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Editor Siddharth VP: What is MediaWiki?
The original look in 2001
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
Monobook in 2005
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
There have been improvements to Wikipedia's tech infrastructure since 2001.
Wikipedia runs on MediaWiki, a software originally written by Magnus Manske in 2002. Today, it supports over 300 languages; it is optimized for the needs of a website with huge amounts of information and billions of readers. It also offers a high degree of customizability, allowing users to shape it to fit their specific needs.
One of the early ways people customized how they read Wikipedia was through "skins". Long-time readers will recognize "Monobook," the skin that starting in 2004 defined the look and feel of Wikipedia for a generation of people.
Vector in 2010
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
Mobile web in 2015
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
Sepia, iOS app, in 2025
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
In 2010, Monobook was replaced with Vector to modernize Wikipedia's appearance. It was revamped again in 2022 to make the desktop experience more intuitive for the next generation of internet users.
Amid the rise of smartphones, Wikipedia began supporting mobile devices beginning in 2007. The mobile look and feel you are used to emerged in 2016, and the Wikimedia Foundation created dedicated apps on iOS and Android in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
Modernized Vector in 2022
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
Dark mode, mobile web, in 2024
Wikipedia - WikiWeb Internet Browser
File Edit View Go Favorites Help
Address:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
Finally, you may have recently noticed that Wikipedia has a new dark mode and loads a little quicker. These developments resulted from two of the Wikimedia Foundation's recent initiatives that made dark mode possible (trickier than you would think!) and building out Wikipedia's data center infrastructure.
2001: English Deutsch Català Français Italiano Português 日本語 español pусский svenska Nederlands polski Simple English Esperanto Afrikaans bokmål euskara
2002: srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски dansk suomi slovenščina interlingua Latina čeština ଓଡ଼ିଆ অসমীয়া қазақша नेपाली кыргызча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ eesti Frysk 한국어 中文 Bahasa Melayu Tiếng Việt Ελληνικά አማርኛ Türkçe bosanski മലയാളം
2003: پښتو isiZulu Māori Runa Simi српски / srpski hrvatski lietuvių भोजपुरी latviešu galego Kiswahili Bahasa Indonesia मराठी ಕನ್ನಡ Cymraeg עברית العربية magyar हिन्दी română walon slovenčina Nāhuatl தமிழ் македонски Gàidhlig Gaelg татарча / tatarça Gaeilge shqip occitan ქართული Alemannisch Tagalog ไทย संस्कृतम् íslenska български corsu తెలుగు فارسی Oʻzbekcha
2004: Ido armãneashti azərbaycanca lea faka-Tonga kurdî / کوردی اردو বাংলা тоҷикӣ Volapük українська Türkmençe монгол ייִדיש Jawa Sunda کٲشُر kaszëbsczi Malagasy sardu ᏣᎳᎩ 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí føroyskt brezhoneg հայերէն မြန်မာဘာသာ ગુજરાતી ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ asturianu davvisámegiella Lëtzebuergesch aragonés nynorsk Limburgs коми беларуская ދިވެހިބަސް Malti sicilianu Чӑвашла
2005: Ilokano Basa Banyumasan võro Kapampangan ភាសាខ្មែរ furlan нохчийн ирон башҡортса Cebuano Scots Ripoarisch Kreyòl Ayisyen Winaray lombard удмурт
2006: گیلکی Nouormand سنڌي Nedersaksies arpetan хальмг 粵語 žemaitėška piemontèis Plattdüütsch Boarisch नेपालभाषा 文言 مازِرونی emiliàn e rumagnòl Zazaki 閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Pangasinan Zeêuws Chavacano de Zamboanga tarandíne буряад বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী словѣньскъ / ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰠⰔⰍⰟ Novial 吴语 hornjoserbsce napulitano
Widening
language
availability
Wikipedia's encyclopedic popularity quickly grew into non-English languages. The German, Catalan, and French Wikipedias were all founded in March 2001, and by end of that year, Wikipedias existed in 16 languages.
Individual communities, sharing similar ideals but operating independently, created these new Wikipedias. That's a format that continues today: volunteers are free to translate Wikipedia articles across languages, and the Wikimedia Foundation has developed tools to help make that a simple process. Other Wikipedia articles are not direct translations, but independently shaped to meet the needs of individual language readers.
Closingknowledgegaps
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Editor Ruby Damenshie-Brown: Wikipedia's knowledge gap
Wikipedia depends on the availability of existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles. That has led to knowledge gaps on Wikipedia, as many topics have been left out of historical and media narratives and traditional sources of knowledge.
Wikipedia's volunteer editors have organized efforts to grow the site's knowledge base. In doing so, they are making Wikipedia more reflective of the topics, events, and people that influence the world's understanding of culture and history. For example, projects like Les sans pagEs in French, Women in Red in English, Editatona in Spanish, WikiDonne in Italian, and many more have led to substantial increases in the number of women's biographies on various Wikipedias.
Protecting global access to knowledgeProtectingglobalaccessto knowledge
Wikipedia has faced many threats over its 25 years of existence. For example, starting in the early 2010s, Wikipedians across languages have protested laws that they believe would inhibit their ability to share knowledge by "blacking out" their sites.
Other actions have taken longer: it took years to revert the Turkish government's block of Wikipedia in 2017. In the years since, Turkey's community of volunteer Wikipedia editors there has grown and thrived.
Blocks, such as one leveled by the Chinese government in 2019, remain in place.
Wikipedia
during major
world events
Whether you are learning about world-changing events, the latest sporting tournament, a celebrity death, or the latest entertainment, Wikipedia is the place people turn to in major moments.
After 9/11, the English Wikipedia featured the latest updates from reliable sources in a breaking news section on its homepage.
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Editor Alaa Najjar: How Wikipedia documented COVID
Weird and
wonderful
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a place for encyclopedic knowledge, and that can range from serious or heartbreaking to amusing and unusual. In fact, on the main page of many language Wikipedias, you may have seen a "did you know?" section that hosts entertaining and often obscure points of trivia.
In that spirit . . .
In Poland, there exists a monument to Wikipedia and what it stands for.
Umarell: a term for "men of retirement age who spend their time watching construction sites"
A play on the famed [citation needed], the [cetacean needed] tag is used in place of a missing image in "List of cetaceans"
A demonstration of a high-five variation from 2008 that went viral; a news outlet found that the couple later married.
Proof that a computer's CD drive can make a surprisingly good cupholder
During the 2010 World Cup, an octopus named Paul predicted Germany's results with a perfect success rate
In 2006, a user uploaded this photo of his cat's run-in with static cling that's now used on over a dozen Wikipedias
Have you ever bought books without any intention of reading them? There's a word for that
There is a detailed account on the legal case that arose after a monkey took a selfie
Looking to
the future
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Editor Mari Avetisyan: Wikipedia spans generations
The online world around Wikipedia is rapidly changing with AI's ability to generate articles, answers, and videos in an instant.
What many people do not recognize is that there is something distinctly familiar behind all that AI-generated content: knowledge documented, debated, and curated by humans.
That's why Wikipedia's role as the backbone of knowledge on the internet has never been more important. Wikipedia's past, present, and future are in people: the sort of folks who research, deliberate, discuss, and build consensus. People young and old alike, all motivated by the idea of bringing the sum of all knowledge to all people.
Wikipedia will continue to evolve alongside advances in technology, just like it has evolved with all the developments of the last 25 years, and will ensure everyone has access to trustworthy knowledge for everyone for generations to come.
We invite you to discover your Wikipedia future with a short, interactive quiz!
Which Wikipedia of the Future are YOU?
Take this quiz to find out!
What do you dream of when you imagine the future? Quantum teleportation? An internet that grows like a garden? Robot athletes - and chefs? Find out what's in your future with this quick quiz.
