On 8 April 2013 13:36, Andrew Gray <andrew.g...@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. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
