OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT’s rise in web traffic has propelled it past Elon Musk's X and Yahoo, making it the sixth most-visited website globally in January 2025.
What Happened: Last week, Similarweb posted its latest desktop traffic rankings for January 2025.
The latest rankings reveal that Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google continues to dominate with a 29.21% traffic share, followed by YouTube at 20.40%.
Meta Platforms, Inc.'s META Facebook holds the third spot with 5.08%, while WhatsApp and Instagram are fourth and fifth, respectively.
ChatGPT follows closely with a 2.33% traffic share, showing a notable month-over-month increase of 5.91%.
X, formerly Twitter ranks seventh with a 1.92% traffic share, and Yahoo is eighth at 1.88%. Reddit Inc. RDDT and Netflix Inc. NFLX complete the top ten list.
Reacting to the ranking, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to X, and said, "Man, still a long way to go to run down Google."
Similarweb also revealed the top 10 apps in the U.S. (iPhone) in January: DeepSeek – AI Assistant, ChatGPT, Threads, Block Blast!, TurboTax: File Your Tax Return, T-Life, Google, Google Gemini, Flip: Watch, Create, Shop and Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire.
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Why It’s Important: In December 2022, almost a month after ChatGPT had its public release, it was reported Google had declared a “code red,” seeing it posing a threat to its search dominance.
In October 2024, OpenAI further challenged Google by unveiling ChatGPT Search, enabling users to access real-time information, a feature traditionally dominated by search engines.
By December, OpenAI expanded this feature to all users, including those on the free tier, enhancing its accessibility and reach.
Meanwhile, Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and then left in 2018, has reportedly made a $97.4-billion bid to regain control of the company.
Photo by jamesonwu1972 on Shutterstock
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