14 DAY TRIAL // Wikipedia Zero is a program to bring the site to as many people as possible for free. The idea is to enable access via mobile devices to a striped down version of the already stripped down Wikipedia, for free, with no data charges.
This should make it possible for more people to use the site, some that may not have otherwise visited Wikipedia or used their internet connection at all.
And it's working, Wikipedia announced that the program was seeing an increased number of users in Africa and Asia.
"Two of our partners agreed to let us publish Wikipedia Zero traffic figures from their network for this blog post. Orange Niger and Orange Kenya both launched the program in July of this year," Wikipedia explained.
"Both countries are extremely mobile-centric, with 41 percent of all Wikipedia page views in Kenya and 29 percent in Niger coming from mobile (compared to a global total of 12 percent)," it added.
In the four months that Wikipedia shared data on, page views grew by 77.1 percent and 87.7 percent respectively. The actual numbers aren't that great, especially in Niger, but they are growing, which is the important thing. As more people find out about Wikipedia Zero, more will use it.
Data coming out of Malaysia is also encouraging, there Wikipedia managed to get a hold of unique visitor numbers. These grew from 91,000 visitors through Digi in the country in May, when the program launched there, to 131,000 now.
Overall, these are indicators that the program is working. Wikipedia Zero is great for Wikipedia, as more people visit the site, the goal of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia foundation behind it.
It's also great for the carriers, as people become more accustomed to browsing the web on their phones, they're going to do it more often and visit sites that don't come with free data usage.