Profiting From WikiLeaks

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December 21, 2010 by Rich Whittle | 4 Comments

In less than a year, WikiLeaks has released hundreds of thousands of classified documents while its frontman Julian Assange became embattled in a sex scandal, was arrested, and faced extradition from Sweden.

The site’s secret-document dumps have spawned contentious political debates, international nail-biting, and near-daily headlines.

According to Inc.com, all that buzz has been a boon for small business. Hundreds of online pop-ups have emerged, peddling their Wiki-wares to the site’s band of loyal followers. Many see the site as purely political; others see it as purely profitable.

Since WikiLeaks hit the headlines, vendors have been uploading new Assange- and state-secrets-themed products daily to Zazzle.com, an e-commerce site based in San Jose, California. Products on the site, which is an open marketplace for designers and small businesses, range from the fairly traditional (buttons, T-shirts, sweatshirts) to the downright droll (dog sweaters, onesies, skateboards).

It stands to reason, then, that WikiLeaks-related websites—some legitimate content hubs, some little more than an attempt to generate ad revenue from URL typos—have also been an inevitable product of recent media attention.

“In the past few months, we’ve started seeing an increase in the number of domain names with the word ‘wiki’ and ‘leaks’ in them,” says Adelman. The site, which claims to register a domain name every second of every day is also hosting about 10 auctions right now for WikiLeaks-themed domains, with an average starting bid of around $5,000 each.