According to SimilarWeb, global desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website witnessed a decline of 9.7% in June compared to May, while unique visitors to the website dropped by 5.7%. Additionally, the data reveals an 8.5% decrease in the amount of time visitors spent on the website.
Similarweb's Senior Insights Manager David Carr, said that the declining traffic suggests a waning interest in the chatbot's novelty. RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria, on the other hand, interprets the data as an indication of increased demand for generative AI with real-time information, according to Reuters.
Sarah Hindlian-Bowler, head of Technology Research Americas at Macquarie, attributes the decline in usage to the challenges of scaling up rapidly from zero to 100 million users. The infrastructure strain may have led to reduced accuracy, requiring adjustments to the model and compliance considerations.
ChatGPT gained widespread popularity and reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after its launch. It quickly became the fastest-growing consumer application ever, boasting over 1.5 billion monthly visits and ranking among the top 20 websites worldwide.
Notably, ChatGPT surpassed Microsoft's Bing, a search engine leveraging OpenAI's technology. In recent months, several competitors, including Google's Bard chatbot, have entered the market. Microsoft's Bing also offers a chatbot powered by OpenAI to users at no cost.
In May, OpenAI launched the ChatGPT app for iOS, potentially diverting some traffic from its website. Additionally, the decrease in usage could be linked to the summer break for schools, as fewer students seek homework assistance. Within two weeks after releasing the Browse with Bing feature on the app, OpenAI decided to shut it down.
Data.ai reports that the ChatGPT app has been downloaded over 17 million times globally on iOS as of July 4. The U.S. market has shown consistent popularity, with an average of 530,000 weekly downloads during the first six full weeks of availability.
The recent growth slowdown may help mitigate the substantial costs associated with running ChatGPT, which demands significant computing power to respond to user queries. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has described the expenses involved as "eye-watering."
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