In addition to logistic growth in the number of its articles,[316] Wikipedia has steadily gained status as a general reference website since its inception in 2001.[317] About 50 percent of search engine traffic to Wikipedia comes from Google,[318] a good portion of which is related to academic research.[319] The number of readers of Wikipedia worldwide reached 365 million at the end of 2009.[320] The Pew Internet and American Life project found that one third of US Internet users consulted Wikipedia.[321] In 2011 Business Insider gave Wikipedia a valuation of $4 billion if it ran advertisements.[322]
