Bomis

former advertising website

Bomis was an Internet company created in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael Davis. Bomis is best known for having supported the creation of the projects Nupedia and Wikipedia.

Bomis
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet
GenreInternet
Founded1996
FounderJimmy Wales,
Tim Shell,
and Michael Davis.
Headquarters,
ProductsWebrings
Nupedia
Wikipedia
ServicesAdvertising
Number of employees
~10
Websitewww.bomis.com (not available)
Bomis staff in 2000

Bomis was popular for hosting entertainment-, sports- and sexual-themed sites. When Nupedia started, Larry Sanger was hired to be the editor-in-chief for the project. But Nupedia resulted too slow to grow and too expensive to maintain, and Wikipedia was started as a side project to help Nupedia grow. In the end, Wikipedia became more popular than Nupedia; it closed in 2003 and Wikipedia was transferred to the newly created Wikimedia Foundation in 2003. Bomis closed in 2006.