Wikipedia’s co-founder is building a new social media platform

A month ago, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales discussed building a new social media site, designed to compete with Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

Today, WT: Social already has more than 50,000 users (and counting).

Wales discussed the Wikipedia-inspired social media with the Financial Times and said that he wants it to have between 50 and 500 million users.

WT: Social was introduced to “combat ‘clickbait’ and misleading headlines’.

The design is reminiscent of Facebook and its newsfeed, which lets users share articles and discuss them together. It also is a bit similar to Reddit, which supports small communities around niche subjects.

Also like Reddit, new content goes at the top – unlike Facebook and Twitter, which now use algorithms to show you its most popular content.

Like Wikipedia, WT: Social runs off user donations to function. There is currently a waitlist to join the service, which can be bypassed if you donate.

Wales has said that the model will never be “massively profitable,” but it would be sustainable.

He went on to admit This is a radical, crazy experiment,” and that he’s, “happy to say [he doesn’t] know all the answers.”