Wikipedia Signs Revenue-Sharing Deal with Mobile Operator Orange

Wikipedia has signed its first major corporate partnership, a revenue sharing deal with mobile operator Orange that will put branded Wikipedia content on Orange phones.

The Wikimedia Foundation has signed its first major corporate partnership deal with European mobile operator Orange. Under the agreement, Orange customers in France, Span, Poland, and the UK will get co-branded access to Wikimedia Foundation content, including a specific Wikipedia channel and both mobile and Web-based widgets to pull Wikipedia content to their mobile devices or Web pages. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Orange will be sharing some revenue with the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation currently gets most of its operating capital from user donations.

“The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to spreading knowledge to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible,” said Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner, in a statement. “Orange’s leadership in mobile and focus on innovation makes them an ideal partner to help us extend our reach.”

The Wikimedia Foundation has turned down approaches from corporate entities before, and claims it wouldn’t be open to letting commercial enterprises tap into their user communities or commerce-enable something like a Wikipedia page. However, corporate partnerships are apparently on the table for companies that aim to extend knowledge to everyone. A second phase of the partnership will apparently explore creating “simple but innovative” services drawing on Orange’s complete portfolio of communications services, including potentially leveraging Wikipedia content to Orange’s IPTV platform.