Wikipedia quietly crossed a remarkable milestone in January, marking 25 years online while remaining one of the most visited, most trusted, and most unusual corners of the modern internet. At a time when much of the web is drowning in ads, trackers, and AI-generated sludge, the free encyclopedia continues to operate without commercial advertising, even as it attracts more than seven billion visitors every month.
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, with its first edit made by founder Jimmy Wales on an iMac G3. What began as an experiment in open collaboration has since grown into the largest encyclopedia in human history, with more than seven million articles in English alone and tens of millions more across hundreds of languages. In December, Wikimedia statistics show the site logged roughly 27 billion page views, a scale of traffic that rivals the biggest social networks and search engines on the planet.
What makes Wikipedia’s reach even more striking is what it does not do. There are no banner ads, no autoplay videos, and no algorithmic feeds designed to keep users scrolling. Instead, the site is run by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation and funded largely through donations from readers. Despite its massive audience, it has resisted the advertising-driven business models that dominate nearly every other major website.
That independence has helped Wikipedia maintain its role as a starting point for research, even as AI tools and chatbots increasingly summarize information without linking back to sources. Editors still cite primary material, debate changes openly, and revise entries constantly, creating a living record of knowledge that is difficult for automated systems to replicate reliably. Many researchers and journalists continue to use Wikipedia not as a final authority, but as a map to credible sources.
Still, the site faces growing challenges. AI companies increasingly scrape Wikipedia’s content at scale, driving up server costs while human readership dips as users turn to chatbots for quick answers. At the same time, political pressure has intensified. In recent years, governments in the US and UK have criticized or threatened regulatory action against the platform, accusing it of bias or misinformation, claims the foundation strongly disputes.
Yet after 25 years, Wikipedia remains online, ad-free, and globally relevant. In an era defined by monetization and manipulation, its continued survival feels almost radical.
