Article originally in the Financial Times. Other articles .
Richard Waters is the Financial Times editor for the west coast of the United States.
Whatever Openai and artificial intelligence at the level of a person that this company wants to create, any influence on our world, it can already attribute one entry into history. No other company has ever built an Internet empire focused on consumers’ services so quickly.
Google took 13 years to reach a billion users. Facebook has reached the same milestone in eight years. Thanks to the viral success of Chatgpt, it seems that Openai can do it in three years.
This speed was also surprised by its leaders. Until recently, they have claimed that their main goal is to turn the company into an artificial intelligence platform to which other businesses could be connected and not to a separate company that provides consumers’ services. However, Sam Altman, CEO, said last week that her audience has doubled within a few weeks and is now a tenth of the world’s population.
Meta and Apple have an advantage
That’s overwhelming. Chatgpt exceeded 200 million visitors a week in August only last August. The rapid growth of the company has left the company little time to address some of the most basic questions that every Internet company that provides consumers must be dealt with.
One of them is: How can Openai keep the attention of users when its gigantic competitors control the main channels of digital distribution? Meta has a huge audience on networks, including WhatsAppa and Instagram. Apple has an iPhone.
As these companies promote their own universal artificial intelligence for consumers, Openai faces the same challenge that Google has faced in its beginnings, and maintain a direct connection with its users (for Google the threat was Microsoft Windows, which dominated the computer world at that time).
Openai can at least point out an attractive distribution agreement it has made with Apple last year. Within it, Siri from Apple offers to give some ChatGPT users if she can’t answer them alone. However, if Apple manages to overcome a recent failure that has postponed the complete launch of its own artificial intelligence services, it seems to be only a temporary agreement.
Will Openai buy Chrome?
Openai will have to come up with its own devices and software to get around these obstacles. Google, who faced the same problem in its beginnings, created Chrome as an alternative to Microsoft and used Android as a competition for the iPhone.
However, the success of this defense strategy is still: a judge who in the United States supervises an uptail action against this company, decides in the coming months whether Google will force Google to become independent Chrome. If it does, Openai can have a precious opportunity to buy a finished platform used by more than half of the world users in the world.
The second fundamental question that Openai barely began to address is how to earn on this new audience. Advertising has been a preferred method of online companies aimed at the mass market so far. Meanwhile, Altman is wandering over this idea and rather relies on subscription.
This brought impressive results. The company’s income climbed to approximately $ 4 billion last year, and investors recently attributed it $ 300 billion. However, Google has reached this award only after its annual income has reached $ 60 billion – which is proof of how much Openai has to prove.
Why are we chatgpt?
Altman recently said in an interview with Ben Thompson of the Stratchery bulletin that he would rather earn money by referring to users directly to the e -commerce website than through advertising.
If the chatgpt developed into the form of a universal assistant and agent to whom the Internet users trusted and accompanied by the digital world, he could have a strong position to make profits. But building a brand new e -commerce economy around this service has not yet begun.
The third big question before Openai: What exactly is the chatgpt for? The latest increase in the number of users was followed by the launch of images in the GPT-4O model, provoking viral internet mania for creating images that look like the style of the Ghibli studio, the famous Japanese animated film creator.
Such fashion features can increase the number of users, but are hardly a permanent basis for future growth. Compare this dilemma with Google, whose users knew from the first visit what it is: for a better search on the Internet.
They still have a long way to go
A large number of people have found great value in Chatgpt, from helping homework to deep research. However, the service is developing rapidly. Web search was added only in October last year, opening competition for Google.
This month, his memory was extended to be able to draw on all previous interactions with the user, which is a big step to become a personalized online agent that Altman dreams.
This product strategy in the bud makes sense in a world where artificial intelligence develops rapidly and where the final goal is still unclear. However, Openai is approaching a milestone of one billion users and has a long way to prove that she can become another internet giant.
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