Korean Wikipedia
Korean-language edition of Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Korean Wikipedia (Korean: 한국어 위키백과) is the Korean-language edition of Wikipedia. Founded on 11 October 2002, it is the 23rd-largest Wikipedia, with 742,921 articles and 6,635 active users.[1] It is the second-largest Korean-language wiki, following Namuwiki. The Korean Wikipedia is unusual in that it officially uses “Wiki baekgwa”(위키백과) instead of “Wikipedia.”(위키피디아) Aside from the Chinese Wikipedia, which adopt a semantic translation due to the difficulty of phonetic transliteration, nearly all other language editions use “Wikipedia” as their official name, making the Korean case highly exceptional.
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Screenshot  Main Page of the Korean Wikipedia in December 2019 | |
Type of site | Internet encyclopedia project |
|---|---|
| Available in | Korean |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| URL | ko |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
Content license | Creative Commons Attribution/ Share-Alike 4.0 (most text also dual-licensed under GFDL) Media licensing varies |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 한국어 위키백과 |
| Hanja | 韓國語 위키百科 |
| RR | Hangugeo Wikibaekgwa |
| MR | Han'gugŏ Wik'ibaekkwa |
History
The Korean Wikipedia initially used an older version of MediaWiki. The software had problems representing Hangul, which limited usage. In August 2002, the software was upgraded and started to support non-English scripts such as Hangul. From October 2002 to July 2003, the number of articles increased from 13 to 159, and in August 2003 it reached 348. In September 2003, the Hangul problem was solved. From September 2003, the number of contributions and visits increased. The Korean Wikipedia's prospects became even more optimistic following the momentum created by substantial coverage in the Korean media.[citation needed] It reached 10,000 articles on 4 June 2005.[2]
On 16 April 2011, discussions were held to promote the formation of a group to support Wikimedia projects in South Korea.[3] Subsequently, on 10 March 2012, the Wikimedia Korea Chapter Preparation Committee was established.[4] A founding general meeting was held on 19 October 2014, and finally, on 4 November 2015, the non-profit corporation Korea Wikimedia Association was officially established and has been active since then.[5] In 2019, it was approved by the Wikimedia Foundation in the United States as a recognized chapter in South Korea.
Milestones
| Articles | Date reached |
|---|---|
| 1 | 12 October 2002 |
| 10,000 | 5 June 2005 |
| 20,000 | 12 February 2006 |
| 30,000 | 14 December 2006 |
| 40,000 | 2 August 2007 |
| 50,000 | 4 January 2008 |
| 60,000 | 24 April 2008 |
| 70,000 | 7 August 2008 |
| 80,000 | 20 November 2008 |
| 90,000 | 25 February 2009 |
| 100,000 | 4 June 2009 |
| 150,000 | 15 December 2010 |
| 200,000 | 19 May 2012 |
| 250,000 | 3 October 2013 |
| 300,000 | 5 January 2015 |
| 350,000 | 3 June 2016 |
| 400,000 | 21 October 2017 |
| 500,000 | 15 June 2020 |
| 600,000 | 16 August 2022 |
| 700,000 | 18 March 2025 |
Comparisons to other Korean wikis and information services
Korean Wikipedia is the 2nd largest Korean language wiki, and the 33rd most visited website of 2024.[6] According to The Hankyoreh, Namuwiki had 7.2 times more traffic compared to the Korean Wikipedia as of October 2024.[7] It is generally attributed that Korean Wikipedia is less substantive and influential compared to NamuWiki.[7]
Jimmy Wales stated that, in other countries, models like Wikipedia were first introduced during the early stages of the internet, leading to very enthusiastic responses. In contrast, in South Korea, other collective collaboration services such as Naver's Jisik-in (지식인), a Quora style ask-and-answer website, were already available, leading to much more lackluster responses.[8]
Dialects
There are two major standards in the Korean language: the South Korea standard, and the North Korea standard.[9] North Koreans are underrepresented on the Korean Wikipedia due to censorship of the internet in North Korea. Therefore, most users of the Korean Wikipedia are South Koreans and most articles are written in the South Korean style. The official name of the Wikipedia is 한국어 위키백과 (Hangugeo Wiki-baekgwa). "Hangugeo" is the name for the Korean language in South Korea, and "baekgwa" is a clipped form of 백과사전 (baekgwasajeon, "encyclopedia").
Services derived from Korean Wikipedia
Businesses heavily make use of the Korean Wikipedia in various ways since its license, the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License (CC BY-SA), allows modification and distribution for commercial purposes. In 2005, the web portal Empas integrated the Korean Wikipedia database in its search tool.[10] The feature to search Korean Wikipedia using a mobile phone with a wireless Internet connection through the web portal Nate was available to the subscribers of SK Telecom from 6 July 2007.[11] Since 21 August, Daum mirrored Korean Wikipedia and English Wikipedia on its portal,[12] and Naver also started to present the search results from the Korean and English Wikipedia prior to others from 11 January 2008.[13]
Politics
The South Korean right-wing youth group story K favors proactive involvement in contributing to Korean Wikipedia.[14] Human rights groups have sent copies of the Korean Wikipedia to North Korea on USB sticks by balloon.[15]
