1. First report
Readership team
[25 February 2015]

2. What we know
about our readers

3. … so far

4. Agenda
At a glance
What we know, with what certainty
What we studied
20 WMF studies, 99 academic papers, 1 interview
What we found
who, why, how
What we don't know
lots
Takeaways

5. Readership
Team

6. At a glance

14. What we studied
● Survey of 99 academic articles on Wikipedia
readership ( ← 2011)
● Interviews for the last strategic planning
(2010)
● Reader Survey (2011)
● Mobile Readers Survey (2011)
● Mobile/desktop readership patterns in
India/Brazil (2011)
● Editor Engagement Experiments (2012)
● Wikipedia Zero Research Study (2013)
● Research on mobile trends (2014)
● Global South User Survey (2014)
● Fundraising research notes summary (several
past focus groups, surveys, & usertesting.com)
● Donor survey (2014)
● Survey on awareness of Wikipedia and its
usage patterns (2014)
● Metrics meeting on readership (2014)
● Videos from Usertesting.com tests with
readers (2014)
● State of the Wiki (covering 2014)
● Reader survey (2015)
● Analysis of reuses of content in other
platforms: syndication usage map (2015)
● Research presentation on readership (2015)
● Donor Focus Groups (2011-2015)
● Interview with Howie Fung (2015)

15. Who? Why? How?

16. What we found

17. Lies, damned lies, and statistics

18. Global south growth +6.3% (+84% on mobile)*
Who?
Geolocation
* Pageviews, not people!
US 18.7%Global
South
Japan 6%
Germany 6%
UK 4.8%
France 4.2%

19. ● Top 5: English (45%), German (6.7%),
Japanese (6.6%), Spanish (6.2%), French (5.3%)
● Highest mobile growth: Korean, Indonesian, Japanese
● India: 90% to ENWP
Who?
Language

20. Who?
Gender ratio
Women
Men
Other
2009 2011 2013 2014
Worldwide desktop
Global south
Netherlands
United States Worldwide mobile
44%
24%
49%
50%
21%

21. Who?
Global
south
Holland
US
Donors
53% 18%
11%
15 25
55%
45
38%
15%
23% 45% 32%
11% 61%
Age
28%

22. ● Top search result, reliable, easy and available
● Desktop for deeper learning;
Mobile to look up facts
Why?

23. Self-reports focus on "serious" uses
Why?
Expanding general knowledge 50%
Studies 23%
Work 16%

24. Why?
> 40% Entertainment!

25. http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~mounia/Papers/wiki.pdf

26. ● Small mobile screen
● Slow connection
● Not interested in content
● Mobile data too expensive
● Design is cold, impersonal, boring, text-heavy,
conservative, old-fashioned
Why?
And why not?

27. 65%< 1% mobile apps
How?
↑64% ↓18.5%
overall: traffic flat
35%

28. Wikipedia, not other projects
Referrals
● Search
● Not social (< 3%)
How?

29. Self-reported use patterns
● Knowledge Graph if answers quick questions
● Top summary section of WP articles
● Don't read entire articles
How?

30. 12-31% visit Wikipedia more than once / day
● 19% less than once / month
How?

31. What we found

32. ● Uniques!
● Demographics → user segments
● Motivations → personas
● Quality assessment - poor methodology
○ leading questions: "Do you trust Wikipedia?"
○ use Featured articles
● Content reuse
● Projects other than Wikipedia & Wikinews
What we don't know...

33. ● 8 interviews with experts
● Over 20 academic articles (2011→)
● 2014-2015 reader studies by fundraising
● User data of "competitors"
More data to study

34. Takeaways
● Hidden data
● Coordinated data collection
○ Comparable surveys over time
○ Methodology
● Design based on reader tasks, pains, and goals
○ What & how they read
○ Barriers: small screen, slow connection
● More resources

35. Discussion