Google becomes first to pay Wikimedia Foundation to access its content

Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group behind Wikipedia, has announced that Google is one of the first companies to buy its commercial Enterprise service.

Wikimedia Enterprise is a commercial product designed for companies that reuse and source Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects at a high volume.

Wikimedia Enterprise was recently launched by the Wikimedia Foundation as an opt-in product. It now offers a free trial account to new users who can self sign-up to better assess their needs with the product.

"Wikimedia Enterprise is designed to meet a variety of content reuse and sourcing needs, and our first two customers are a key example of this. Google and Internet Archive leverage Wikimedia content in very distinct ways," Lane Becker, Senior Director of Earned Revenue at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Wikimedia Enterprise was designed to make it easier for companies to package and share Wikimedia content at scale in ways that best suit their needs.

Interested companies can now sign up on the website for a free trial account which offers 10,000 on-demand requests and unlimited access to a 30-day Snapshot, the foundation announced.

Google and the Wikimedia Foundation have worked together on a number of projects and initiatives to enhance knowledge distribution to the world.

"Wikipedia is a unique and valuable resource, created freely for the world by its dedicated volunteer community. We have long supported the Wikimedia Foundation in pursuit of our shared goals of expanding knowledge and information access for people everywhere," said Tim Palmer, Managing Director, Search Partnerships at Google.

Internet Archive is also a long-standing partner to the Wikimedia Foundation and the broader free knowledge movement.