OPENAI
Yet another billion-dollar business
ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch, according to OpenAI.
The platform now has tens of thousands of advertisers, with self-service ad buying expanding across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Advertising is becoming a bigger part of OpenAI’s business alongside subscriptions, enterprise products and APIs.
The company says ads help support ChatGPT’s free tier, used by more than 1 billion people each week.
People already use ChatGPT to compare products, research software, look for jobs and make decisions.
OpenAI wants ads to appear during those moments when they are relevant to what users are exploring.
The system can use the current conversation to choose relevant ads.
Depending on location and user settings, it may also use wider ChatGPT activity to personalise them.
OpenAI says ads are clearly labelled, remain separate from ChatGPT’s answers and do not affect its responses. Advertisers also cannot access private conversations.
Here’s what you should know:
$1B run rate reached in under 200 days.
Wider rollout for self-service ads are expanding across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa.
More ad tools targeting, conversion tracking and CPC bidding are becoming a bigger part of the platform.
Your chat, now with commercial breaks
ChatGPT Ads is now available in more than 40 countries.
OpenAI also launched Ads Manager in May, giving smaller businesses a way to buy ads directly.
The platform now includes tools such as cost-per-click bidding, conversion tracking, product feeds, geographic targeting and custom audiences.
OpenAI says one ecommerce advertiser saw a 3x return on ad spend over 28 days, while one technology partner said more than 80% of ad-driven ChatGPT traffic came from new customers.
Next, OpenAI plans to expand ads into more markets and add new formats, targeting options and measurement tools.
More ads, followed by “we’re increasing the price of your subscription” - MV