[Wikimedia-l] The value of Wikipedia for the economy

[Thomas Dalton]

On 8 April 2013 13:36, Andrew Gray <andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk> wrote:
> The Economist had an estimate recently:
>
> http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21573091-how-quantify-gains-internet-has-brought-consumers-net-benefits
> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/03/technology-2
>
> - of approximately $50m "value" to readers. It's a pretty vague
> estimate, but it's an interesting start.

That's the value specifically the readers, rather than to the economy
in general - it excludes the value to ISPs (who actually get paid for
people accessing Wikipedia). As the article explains, it is an
estimate of the "consumer surplus" (although it seems to assume there
was no consumer surplus in 1999, which won't be true, and understates
in various other ways as well, some of which are mentioned in the
article).

If we want the value as a whole, we should add on the ISPs profits
that can be attributed to Wikipedia. And the profits of their
suppliers right the way down the supply chain.