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"The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, reported a total revenue of $185.4 million for the 2023–2024 fiscal year (ending June 2024). The majority of this funding comes from individual donations, with additional income from investments and the Wikimedia Enterprise commercial API service."

(Unless this was satire and I missed it)

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What's the operating budget for other websites with comparable traffic? Without context $185 million seems like a lot, but compared to what? Reddit's operating budget for the same timeframe was $1.86 billion.

I agree, but it's not a shoestring budget. They also seem to run a surplus every year:

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) maintains a significant financial surplus and a growing, healthy balance sheet, with net assets reaching approximately $271.5 million in the 2023–2024 fiscal year. This surplus is largely driven by consistent, high-volume, small-dollar donations, with total annual revenue often exceeding $180 million.

Surplus is a good thing right? Long term stability, responsible financial management, healthy margins? If they said one year "You know what? We're good on donations this year." it would never be restarted.

Very prudent, but far from "operating on a shoestring".

I think the question might be how much money, effort, and expertise is going into the platform itself.

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