Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has taken a “substantial” stake in The People’s Operator (TPO), a London-based mobile provider that pays 10 percent of revenue to good causes, with the aim of taking it to the United States and other markets.<\/p>\n
Wales said TPO had pulled off the difficult feat of creating an inspirational business that had solid commercial foundations.<\/p>\n
“Its big vision is to generate massive sums of money for good causes,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. “But when I worked though the numbers and looked at the business model, it made a lot of sense to me.”<\/p>\n
TPO is a so-called mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it relies on an existing operator’s network, in this case EE, the British joint venture between France’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom.<\/p>\n
It launched a pay-as-you-go operation in November 2012 and followed in April 2013 with a contract offering unlimited voice, mobile and data for 14.99 pounds ($24.61) a month. Ten percent of revenue is directed to any good cause chosen by the customer and the company also pledges to pay 25 percent of its profits to charity.<\/p>\n
Mark Epstein, chief executive and one of the company’s founders, did not reveal customer numbers, but said there had been a rapid increase in take-up since it introduced its unlimited deal, from which hundreds of good causes were benefiting.<\/p>\n
TPO, which is not yet profitable, does not spend huge sums on marketing, Epstein said, relying instead on word-of-mouth and promotion by the organizations it helps.<\/p>\n
Wales, who launched online encyclopedia Wikipedia 13 years ago, said he would help TPO expand internationally, starting with the United States. He will be co-chairman of the company.<\/p>\n
“We need to go global as quickly as possible,” he said. “We will really push into other markets as soon as we can get deals done.”<\/p>\n
He said he would also help create a louder online buzz for TPO. “One of the reasons they were interested in me is to really build that online community – an online offer that has all the tools they need to accelerate virally.”<\/p>\n