France Telecom's carrier brand Orange, one of Europe's largest, has reached a deal with Wikimedia to provide its users with co-branded content that will be accessed through specific Wikipedia channels on Orange's mobile and internet portals, the two announced today. Orange will place ads alongside Wikipedia content and the two will share the ad revenues. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, but Wikimedia called the deal "an important new revenue stream".
Orange will also place links to relevant Wikipedia content through its web and mobile portals, as well as develop mobile and web-based widgets that customers can use to access Wikipedia content directly from their Orange mobile or web homepage. The partnership will be rolled out first in France, the UK and Spain, and across the rest of Orange's European territories at a later date. At an unspecified later time, the two will roll out phase two, in which Orange and Wikimedia will create a new services involving mobile, internet and television. This may not be the last deal of its kind for Wikimedia. The foundation said the deal was not an exclusive one and that it wanted "to develop a large and diverse global network of partners, supporters, participants and friends."
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