 Wikipedia began as a feature of Nupedia.com on January 15 , 2001 , later known as Wikipedia Day . It was originally intended only to generate draft articles for Nupedia , with finished articles moved to the latter . Wikipedia became a separate site days after the Nupedia advisory board opposed combining the two . In September 2001 , Wales was simultaneously CEO of Bomis and co @-@ founder of Wikipedia ; Sanger was chief organizer of Wikipedia and editor @-@ in @-@ chief of Nupedia . 
