MANILA, Philippines – The Wikimedia Foundation is discontinuing Wikipedia Zero, its no-cost access system for Wikipedia in developing countries.

In a statement released last Friday, February 16, the Wikimedia Foundation said it saw “a significant drop off in adoption and interest in the program” since 2016, which may have been caused by a number of factors, such as changes in mobile data costs and a low awareness of Wikipedia outside North America and Europe. 

Set up in 2012, Wikipedia Zero was a system that let users in developing countries access Wikimedia content at no cost to the user. This was done through partnerships with mobile operators around the world. 

Wikimedia Foundaiton added those partnerships will expire this year, and they will not be forming or reforming partnerships across 2018.

Despite this, Wikimedia Foundaiton says it is looking to break other barriers aside from data affordability preventing people from access to information. The foundation says it will continue “to explore, evaluate, and measure the impact of our partnership opportunities and more as we build for the future of Wikimedia.” – Rappler.com