Bomis
Sign in to saveBomis, Inc. (, from Bitter Old Men in Suits; rhyming with "promise") was an American dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia. It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael Davis. By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Wikipedia-related resources transferred to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Key facts
- Website.name
- Bomis, Inc.
- Website.logo
- Bomis oval.svg
- Website.company_type
- Private
- Website.foundation
- 1996
- Website.CEO
- Tim Shell
- Website.location_city
- St. Petersburg, Florida
- Website.location_country
- United States
- Website.industry
- Dot-com
- Website.num_employees
- 10
- Website.url
- bomis.com, archived at the Internet Archive
- Website.language
- English
- Website.advertising
- Yes
- Website.registration
- No
- Website.launch_date
- 1996
- Website.dissolved
- 2007
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Employees
- 10
- Official website
- bomis.com
- Image
- Bomis founders in 2006.jpg
- Motto
- Remember, if you aren't having fun, it isn't Bomis!
Show 5 more facts
- inception
- 1996-01-01
- Commons category
- Bomis
- end time
- 2010-01-01
- dissolved, abolished or demolished date
- 2007-00-00
- native label
- Bomis
via Wikidata · CC0
~20 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- History
- Background
- Foundation
- Hosted content
- Nupedia and Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
- Aftermath
- Description of site
- Footnotes
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
Bomis, Inc. (, from Bitter Old Men in Suits; rhyming with "promise") was an American dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia. It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael Davis. By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Wikipedia-related resources transferred to the Wikimedia Foundation.
The company initially tried a number of ideas for content, including being a directory of information about Chicago. The site subsequently focused on content geared to a male audience, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Bomis became successful after focusing on pornography. "Bomis Babes" was devoted to erotic images; the "Bomis Babe Report" featured adult pictures. Bomis Premium, available for an additional fee, provided explicit material. "The Babe Engine" helped users find erotic content through a web search engine. The advertising director for Bomis noted that 99 percent of queries on the site were for nude women.