Research firm Sensor Tower reports that OpenAI’s ChatGPT had one billion monthly app users last month. The lead based on this yardstick is long-standing in the industry. According to CNBC: “With its billion-MAU figure — achieved roughly 3.5 years after its November 2022 launch — ChatGPT became the fastest app ever to reach the milestone, surpassing the previous record set by Google Maps, which took around five years after launch to reach the same volume of usage.”
But, does it matter? The first question is how many people pay for the app? Does it make OpenAI a lot of money? There is a “Business ChatGPT & Codex” version for $20 a month. It has been created primarily for teams. And, the high-end model is “Business Codex”, which was created for software coders. Its price model is based on use. OpenAI had $5.7 billion in revenue in the first quarter. How much came from these products?
The downloads don’t represent revenue from OpenAI’s largest enterprise customers. Many analysts think this is the future of the AI business model. It is a major reason AI companies may spend as much as $1 trillion next year to build AI data centers. And, there is a war for these customers. That war is, for now, primarily between OpenAI and Anthropic.
The revenue model for enterprise customers has recently been disrupted by a price war, first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Companies have begun to question the return on their AI investments. They may make many tasks and teams more efficient. But, where are the results of that on the bottom line? For some enterprise customers, the answer is “nowhere.”
The jury is still out on the revenue sources of large AI companies. Will it be heavy individual users, or relatively small teams of professional developers and users? For the time being, the one billion app users OpenAI has may not mean much.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks