Wikipedia boss predicts serious downturn for websites

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Brand Republic 31-Oct-08, 11:20

LONDON - The founder of not-for-profit reference site Wikipedia has predicted the downfall of "some major household name websites" and a drop in online advertising revenue.

Jimmy Wales is predicting internet and technology companies will suffer a "serious downturn" due to the recession, and suggested Yahoo! is the company most likely to suffer a sustained downturn.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Wales said the knock to the global economy will hit websites that are heavily reliant on advertising and a "lot of marginal players are going to have serious problems".

"I could see some of the major players' stock suffering, some of them quite badly, but overall I don't think it will be that bad," he said.

Yahoo, which turned down a $44.6bn (£29.3bn) takeover bid from Microsoft in May, last week announced a 64% fall in quarterly profits as well as 1,500 job cuts.

Comments

harry fowler - 31/10/2008

Jimmy Wales suggests that Yahoo! is the company most likely to suffer a sustained downturn. Where did he manage to get that insight from? - he's like a modern day Nostradamus! $32 per share to $12 per share within a year - I know it's a Friday and news maybe a bit slow, but this story is incredibly lame.

Phil Dearson - 31/10/2008

@harry: heh - I'm predicting sustained coverage of an economic downturn by media companies.

Nick Fisher - 31/10/2008

I agree.. This story wont even make tomorrow's fish and chips..

John Caldwell - 31/10/2008

It is indeed a lame story, I know that Ad revenue may suffer but the header is a bit of a sweeping statement ...... the economic situation has actually meant a huge rise in etailing as more buyers try to eek out bargains in the online space ! Its no wonder that so many of the entries on Wikipedia are just personal points of view rather than acutal fact. John Caldwell

Jay Stevens - 31/10/2008

I love it, a guy that runs a non-profit organisation predicting the future of commercially related media properties. How many agency calls has he been on recently and when's the last time he delivered a proposed media plan?

John Mooney - 01/11/2008

I agree, take the greed factor out of the equation and the global market will be a better place. We introduced a new low cost jobs board that will undercut the current players by between 80% to 90%. http://www.jobs2ireland.com It is aimed at all the HR Managers who have remained silent while their captains of industry got pay hikes of 20 to 30 times more than the rest of the Employees and look at the mess that these captains have left behind. Most of them must have gone to the Titanic School of Management.