03.31.09
Update on Wikia – doing more of what’s working
If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my career, it is to do more of what’s working, and less of what’s not.
In past 24 months, Wikia.com has seen tremendous expansion. Nielsen recently recognized Wikia.com as the fifth fastest growing member community destination in February 2009:
| RANK | Site | Feb 08 | Feb 09 | % growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twitter.com | 475,000 | 7,038,000 | 1382% |
| 2 | Zimbio | 809,000 | 2,752,000 | 240% |
| 3 | 20,043,000 | 65,704,000 | 228% | |
| 4 | Multiply | 821,000 | 2,394,000 | 192% |
| 5 | Wikia | 1,381,000 | 3,758,000 | 172% |
| source: Nielsen NetView, 2/09, U.S., Home and Work | ||||
Source:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitters-tweet-smell-of-success/
Our Wikianswers Q&A site in particular has seen tremendous growth since it was re-launched in February, and we’ll be investing more of our time in it. Our gaming and entertainment networks and communities also continue to see strong growth.
On the other hand, while I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space, our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped.
In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It’s something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader.
But for now, we will be closing the doors on the Wikia Search project (as of March 31, 2009) and will be re-directing and refocusing resources on other Wikia.com properties, especially on Wikianswers. Join me there to help provide freely licensed answers to all the world’s questions.
