ChatGPT's Meteoric Rise Faces Traffic Downturn Three Months In A Row Amid App Expansions And Rising Rivals

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which captured the world’s imagination upon its launch, has now been wrestling with a persistent monthly traffic decline. 

What Happened: In August, OpenAI’s ChatGPT faced its third month of dwindling website traffic, marking a concerning trend for the once-thriving AI chatbot.

Analytics firm Similarweb reported a 3.2% decrease in worldwide website visits, with the total number falling to 1.43 billion. Reuters reported that this decline follows two consecutive months of approximately 10% drops in traffic. 

The duration of user visits has also steadily decreased, with the average time spent on the website dropping from 8.7 minutes in March to just seven minutes in August.

However, there was a glimmer of hope as August witnessed a slight uptick in worldwide unique visitors, rising from 180 million to 180.5 million users.

See Also: How To Use ChatGPT On Mobile Like A Pro

It is pertinent to note that OpenAI expanded its offerings, including releasing the ChatGPT app on the App Store and Google Play Store, which could have impacted website traffic. 

ChatGPT initially made headlines by reaching 100 million monthly active users within two months of its launch, and it became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history. 

Now among the top 30 websites globally, ChatGPT faces new challenges from emerging competitors like Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Bard chatbot and Microsoft Corporation’s MSFT Bing-powered AI.

Why It’s Important: One potential factor contributing to the decline in ChatGPT’s traffic over the summer was a decrease in younger users. 

Nevertheless, as schools resumed in September, especially in the United States, the chatbot experienced a modest resurgence in traffic, potentially due to students seeking homework assistance, the report noted. 

OpenAI is currently preparing for its first-ever developer conference, slated for Nov. 6. The company, which Microsoft backs, aims to generate more than $1 billion in revenue by selling AI software and computing capacity within the following year. 

Image Credits – Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. 

Read Next: ‘ChatGPT Does 80% Of My Job’ — How AI Enables People To Work Second And Third Jobs