①OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising business achieved an annualized revenue of $100 million within six weeks of its pilot in the United States, driven by strong early demand; ②The company plans to expand the pilot to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in the coming weeks and aims to launch a self-service advertising feature in April.
OpenAI's ChatGPT advertising pilot in the United States reached the milestone of $100 million in annualized revenue within six weeks of its launch. On Thursday Eastern Time, a company spokesperson attributed this achievement to robust early demand for the company’s emerging advertising business.
In January this year, OpenAI announced that it would display advertisements to some U.S. users within ChatGPT to accelerate the monetization process of this AI chat tool, supporting the high costs associated with developing AI technology.
These advertisements will be tested among users of the company’s free tier and the lower-priced Go plan.
OpenAI emphasized that these advertisements are separate from the answers generated by ChatGPT and will not influence its output results. Additionally, conversations between users and ChatGPT will not be shared with the marketing department.
Analysts noted that OpenAI’s advertising business could provide the company with a significant revenue stream from its vast user base, but this move might irritate some customers and damage trust in the product.
In response, an OpenAI spokesperson stated that although approximately 85% of users meet the criteria to view advertisements, less than 20% of users actually see ads daily. Moreover, there remains substantial room to enhance the profitability of advertisements within the existing user base.
OpenAI also stressed: “We have not observed any impact on consumer trust metrics. The click-through rate for advertisements is low, and their relevance continues to improve as we learn from feedback.”
The company plans to expand the pilot to more countries in the coming weeks, including Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
A company spokesperson stated that OpenAI currently has over 600 advertising clients, nearly 80% of whom are small and medium-sized enterprises expressing interest in ChatGPT advertisements.
OpenAI also plans to launch a self-service advertising feature in April to further drive the growth of its advertising business.
Earlier this week, former $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ advertising executive David Dugan was appointed to lead OpenAI's global advertising solutions team.
Editor/Doris