Fandom: Difference between revisions

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'''Fandom''', formerly known as '''Wikia''', is a platform composed mainly of user-generated content on different types of multimedia, including video games, movies, series, and books. It also owns several entertainment outlets, such as GameSpot and TV Guide, as well as other multimedia databases, such as GameFAQs and MetaCritic.
'''Fandom''', formerly known as '''Wikia''', is a media conglomerate based in the United States. The website has more than 50 million user-generated pages, in addition to other multimedia databases such as GameFAQs, Metacritic, and Gamepedia. It also owns entertainment outlets such as GameSpot and TV Guide, in addition to owning online video game retailers such as Fanatical.


In 2018, Fandom was acquired by private equity firm TPG Capital.
In 2018, Fandom was acquired by private equity firm TPG Capital. In 2024, the Detailed.com blog, which analyzes web development with regard to SEO, categorized Fandom as one of the 16 companies that dominate global traffic for Google Search, noting that it had been one of the largest domains it had ever recorded with an estimated 800 million visits according to statistics provided by Semrush in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Allsopp |first=Glen |date=2024 |title=How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results (2024 Edition) |url=https://detailed.com/google-control/ |access-date=2025-08-21 |website=Detailed.com}}</ref>


==Consumer-impact summary==
==Consumer-impact summary==
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Lee explained that giving editors the right to leave and transfer their content to another platform entirely helps prevent the host from going through [[enshittification]] processes, as it forces the host to strive to provide a better service in the event that users are dissatisfied with the service they have, rather than maintaining dead projects as Fandom does when a large part of the community decides to migrate en masse after policy changes.
Lee explained that giving editors the right to leave and transfer their content to another platform entirely helps prevent the host from going through [[enshittification]] processes, as it forces the host to strive to provide a better service in the event that users are dissatisfied with the service they have, rather than maintaining dead projects as Fandom does when a large part of the community decides to migrate en masse after policy changes.


=== Privacy ===
===Privacy===
When you create an account on Fandom, your information and data is shared with more than 300 advertising and media partners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-20 |title=Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work |url=https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=Frisk.space}}</ref> Additionally, the data provided by users is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to pages. In addition, user-generated data is used to train AI models, including posts in discussions and content provided to wiki pages. In 2025, Fandom confirmed to ''Inc Magazine'' that it had trained an AI model called ''“FanDNA Helix”'' using more than 50 million pages and user-generated posts so that advertising companies could target ads based on user consumption habits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sherry |first=Ben |date=2025-02-18 |title=How Fandom Uses AI to Turn Your Obsessions Into Gold |url=https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312182852/https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |archive-date=March 12, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-20 |work=Inc Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>
When you create an account on Fandom, your information and data is shared with more than 300 advertising and media partners.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-20 |title=Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work |url=https://frisk.space/posts/fandom-and-the-multimillion-business-of-monetizing-volunteer-work/ |access-date=2025-08-20 |website=Frisk.space}}</ref> Additionally, the data provided by users is used for training AI models, including posts in discussions as well as content provided to pages. In addition, user-generated data is used to train AI models, including posts in discussions and content provided to wiki pages. In 2025, Fandom confirmed to ''Inc Magazine'' that it had trained an AI model called ''“FanDNA Helix”'' using more than 50 million pages and user-generated posts so that advertising companies could target ads based on user consumption habits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sherry |first=Ben |date=2025-02-18 |title=How Fandom Uses AI to Turn Your Obsessions Into Gold |url=https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312182852/https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/how-fandom-uses-ai-to-turn-your-obsessions-into-gold/91145315 |archive-date=March 12, 2025 |access-date=2025-07-20 |work=Inc Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>