PROFIT PROPOSITION1. Wikipedia charged no subscription fee to access articles whereas Britannica charged an annual subscription of $70 and $30 for a premium membership to its users.2. Wikipedia had a corps of dedicated volunteers who would edit the articles for free. Unlike Britannica.com which maintained a paid editorial board of 12 advisors, 96 paid editors and over 4000 paid contributors. The administrative cost is higher in the case of Britannica.3. Wikipedia is highly optimized for search engines as it is Google(#1 most popular),Yahoo (#4),Live(#5) and MSN(#9).On the other hand to visit Britannica page a user to type the name on the web URL in order to browse on the page.4. Britannica invest in costly brand building, marketing, advertising and web optimization by the third vendor whereas Wikipedia creates new user demand for its offering by being placed in the top 5 returned results on search engines.5. During its 2009-2010,Wikipedia received 240,000 contribution from the individuals from all over the world who donated on an average US$33 to keep the free Website going but Britannica had no such contributors who made any kind of donation to the website.6. The Wikipedia foundation(NGO) was setup for managing Wikipedia and its 12 sister projects, raised over $8.1 million during their 2009-2010 fund drive, almost $2 million over the $6.2 million they raised in 2008-2010 and nearly the double $4.4 million raised in 2007-08 and these privilege was not available with Britannica.com.7. While Wikipedia operational cost is rising with the expand in scope and rising funding but Britannica.com cost is not as high as it has not expanded its scope as its competitors.

BUSINESS MODEL:INCOME:Wikipedia:1. Wikipedia foundation2. Individual donationBritannica:1. Annual subscription fee2. Advertisements

COST:Wikipedia:1. Very low administrative cost2. Top placement on search engine3. Operational cost to expand scope.

BRITANNICA:1. High administrative cost like salary to editors and writers.2. Marketing cost

FOUR ACTION FRAMEWORK:

ELIMINATE: Wikipedia has eliminated the subscription fee the user had to pay to access the article. It has completely discarded the advertisement that floats on the website page

REDUCE: It has reduced administrative cost. It has also reduced the operational cost to some extent.

RAISE: It has raised the number of article that is available on the website. It has also raised by obtaining the position in the top placement on the search engine.

CREATE: A corps of dedicated volunteers those who edit articles for free which has given them a sense of pride and ownership in their contribution and also protect its the integrity of their article with fierce loyalty and diligence. It has also created Wikipedia foundation and individual have paid donation to keep it the website running.

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