Umniah Signs a Strategic Partnership with Wikimedia

Oct. 8, 2013 - PRLog -- Due to the leading role played in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector and being eager to promote digital media, Umniah recently signed a strategic partnership with the California-based charitable organization, the Wikimedia Foundation.

Under the new partnership, Umniah will participate in an initiative called Wikipedia Zero, launched with the aim of removing all barriers that hinder mobile users from accessing Wikipedia, specifically those users living in developing countries. Umniah is the first local company to launch a partnership that focuses on easing the financial burdens many users face as subscription costs are on the rise. With this in mind, Umniah and the Wikimedia Foundation have gone ahead with plans to make Wikipedia accessible without charge through m.wikipedia.org and zero.wikipedia.org.

The new initiative has strengthenedUmniah’s influence in the local market, as well as promoting mobile internet usage and increasing internet penetration by 68 percent in Jordan.

The multi-language online encyclopedia has become one of the largest websites, attracting more than 500million visitors per month worldwide, according to Comscore. In its Arabic version, Wikipedia has more than 2,867 active editors who have composed roughly 242,000 articles since its inception in 2001.

IhabHinnawi, the CEO of Umniah, said, “Since this is our first such initiative that promotes internet content, we are happy to provide free access to some of Wikipedia’s content. We consider this initiative an important gateway to helping educate members of society, specifically ones facing financial burdens.”

Mobile penetration throughout the developing world brings the promise of access to information, yet data costs are still a barrier for most people. Our partnership with Umniah removes the data cost barrier and makes knowledge available to millions of Jordanians,” said Carolynne Schloeder, Director of Mobile Programs at the Wikimedia Foundation. “We thank Umniah for joining Wikipedia Zero and for supporting free knowledge.