AMAZON HAS bunged some wonga at Wikia, the ‘community’ offshoot of online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Neither firm would disclose the size of the bung.
In a statement, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Wikia, had “cracked the code for user-generated content.” He said Amazon wanted to “support the continued growth” of sites like it. You’d think the investment was made for altruistic reasons rather than to make money, which, of course is its main purpose.
Wikia founders Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesly raised some $4million to launch the site in November 2004, on which some 30,000 people have posted stuff.
Wikia also announced it had spent more than $2 million of that to buy ArmchairGM, this week. The sports community site runs on the same MediaWiki software platform used by Wikia and Wikipedia.
And it has its eyes on more, according to Wikia Chief Executive Gil Penchina.
News source: THEINQUIRER
