Wikipedia’s Foundation Makes First Content Deal With For-Profit Partner

The nonprofit operator of the online reference site Wikipedia has struck its first large content partnership with a major for-profit company, The Wall Street Journal reports on its technology blog Digits.

The Wikimedia Foundation yesterday announced a deal with European telecom Orange to develop co-branded Wiki channels on the firm’s mobile and Web portals and build new services and features around Wikipedia content.

Orange will share some revenue from the projects with Wikimedia, which currently raises most of its income — $6.2-million last year — from users’ donations but will need more income as its traffic grows.