2025 Annual Report — Rest of World

Message from our Publisher

Dear readers,

The world feels like it’s coming apart and reforming at the same time. Old alliances are fraying and new ones are forming along lines that don’t show up on the maps we’ve been using. The institutions and agreements that structured global trade, technology, and political life for decades are under pressure, and what comes next is unclear. Technology is sometimes driving these shifts, sometimes simply accelerating them, but it is often the clearest signal we have that something fundamental is changing.

That’s what draws us to this work. Not the products or the companies, but what technology reveals about where the world is moving, what people actually need, and what they start building when the existing options no longer serve them.

This year our reporters were in those places. Watching platforms reshape labor markets in economies where there is no safety net. Seeing AI arrive in communities with little regulatory framework. Finding entrepreneurs building alternatives to systems designed somewhere else for someone else entirely.

Lilongwe, Malawi Thoko Chikundi

Seoul, South Korea Jun Michael Park

The stories were rarely simple. The same technology that raises serious concerns in one context can represent genuine opportunity in another. A tool that gets scrutinized heavily in Washington or Brussels may be the first thing that actually works for a small business owner in a city that neither place has ever paid much attention to.

There is also a real urgency to this moment. The choices being made about AI infrastructure, data governance, and platform power will be difficult to reverse. They are being made quickly, often by a small number of people, and their consequences will be felt most sharply in places that have the least influence over the outcome.

Understanding what works, what fails, and what gets invented out of necessity in those places is essential to understanding where technology is heading next.

The fragmentation unfolding across the world is likely to continue. New centers of gravity are emerging. Different models of how technology should be built, governed, and distributed are beginning to compete for influence. That’s a more complicated world to cover than the one where a handful of companies set the agenda and everyone else reacted.

Rest of World exists to cover that shift, with the geographic range and editorial commitment it requires. We’re grateful to the readers and supporters who make that work possible, and conscious of the responsibility that comes with it.

Our Mission

Rest of World challenges expectations about whose experiences with technology matter.

Who We Are

Rest of World is an award-winning global nonprofit newsroom that reports on how tech is transforming the daily lives of billions of people outside the West. Our reporting connects the dots across a rapidly evolving digital world, covering everything from supply chains and data centers to Big Tech and the future of work. 

The math is simple: Four of the world’s 5 billion internet users live in rising markets. Countries like Syria, Ecuador, and Oman are fueling unexpected innovation that’s reshaping how people earn, connect, and spend their time. 

Tech no longer has an epicenter. Rest of World fills a critical blind spot by translating deeply reported, visually rich stories from outside the West. Innovation now moves across borders, time zones, and cultures. Our journalism unpacks the changing and growing impact of tech on both global markets and the globally curious.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thanh Hue

Damascus, Syria Ali Haj Suleiman

“I was delighted to learn that Rest of World exists in the first place, and I think it provides a unique perspective unlikely to find in the mainly U.S.-only POV dominated tech media.”

RUBEM Brazil

Quilicura, Chile Cristobal Olivares

We reported on nearly
40 countries in 2025

753,000+

readers per month across all platforms and channels

80%

67

readers with a bachelor's degree or higher

languages spoken by our readers

50%

of our readers fall between ages 25-44

We reach more than 753,000 readers each month across all of our platforms and channels.

Most of our audience discovers us through search, direct visits, and our newsletter, with additional traffic coming from social media and news aggregators.

Roughly two-thirds of our readers are based in the United States, India, the United Kingdom, and Canada, while the remaining audience spans many other countries.

Demographically, more than half of our readers are between 25 and 44 years old, and 80% hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. The majority work in the tech sector, followed by professionals in nonprofits, government, and policy.

“Always a refreshing and human take.”

NISHARA Australia

Bikita, Zimbabwe Zinyange Auntony

New Delhi, India Chinky Shukla

Reach, for our newsroom, is not a tally of clicks or a count of eyeballs. It’s the many ways our reporting travels beyond the page and into the world, shaping conversations, informing decisions, and extending the life of a story long after publication. Traditional measures of impact — holding decision-makers to account or prompting policy change — remain central, but they are only part of the picture.

We also see reach as ways our work is recognized, cited, and trusted by peers, institutions, and the public. When our reporting is referenced in courtrooms, classrooms, and legislatures, or earns awards and professional recognition, it reflects influence that can’t be captured by traffic alone. Appearances, collaborations, and invitations to contribute to broader public discourse further expand how our journalism resonates. Taken together, these signals show how far our work goes — and how deeply it matters.

Jamira char, Bangladesh Quddus Alam

Awards and Recognition

Rest of World’s journalism continues to cut through the noise. From hard-hitting investigations to standout storytelling, our newsroom delivered work that informed, challenged, and made an impact. That commitment to independent, high-quality reporting didn’t go unnoticed. 

The following awards recognize the excellence, ambition, and integrity that define our journalism and the people behind it.

Edward R. Murrow Award

International Foundation for Electoral Systems

Society of Publishers in Asia

Society for News Design 45

Staff Portfolio: Rest of World, Cengiz Yar, Munira Mutaher and Joanne Lee

Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award

South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA)

TELLY Awards

High Profile Appearances and Citations

From the high energy of Singapore to the global crossroads of Rio de Janeiro and the energy of New York City, our company has taken the stage at some of the world’s most influential convenings, including the World Economic Forum, Web Summits, and Founders Forum. These forums are more than high-profile gatherings: they are where global tech policy is shaped, cross-border partnerships are forged, and the future of innovation is debated at the highest levels with builders, decisionmakers, investors, and policymakers from every continent. 

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery — and in our case, it’s become a pattern. Because we’re often first on the ground to uncover a product, service, or entrepreneur before anyone else, our reporting doesn’t just break news; it sparks it. NPR turned one of our feature stories on the expansion of Chinese EV battery manufacturer Gotion into the U.S. into a segment on Planet Money. And the Guardian ran our story on the relationship between our reporter’s mother and chatbot DeepSeek in its print edition. When others follow, it’s a sign we were already there first.

Income & Expenses

Donor Recognition

As a nonprofit organization, Rest of World relies on financial support from private foundations and individuals to deliver on our mission. We are grateful to all our donors, especially those who contributed more than $1,000. Thank you for investing in our journalism!

Institutions

Members

Shawn Byers
Wendell Family Foundation
Wendy Schmidt

Carl Schmidt
Craig Mundie
Eric Sheridan

Jonathan Rosenberg
Pushpathadam Patel Donation Fund
Richard d’Abo

“I love supporting journalism that helps us develop a fact-based worldview!”

SHIVANK Belgium

Istanbul, Turkey Nicole Tung

New Delhi, India Poshali Goel