ChatGPT, the popular chatbot developed by OpenAI, has recently experienced a decline in users and traffic on its website. According to SimilarWeb, the global desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website dropped by 9.7% in June compared to May, while unique visitors to the site decreased by 5.7%. Additionally, the data showed an 8.5% decrease in the average time spent on the website.
David Carr, Senior Insights Manager at SimilarWeb, suggests that this decline in traffic indicates a waning interest in the novelty of the chatbot. However, Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, interprets the data differently, seeing it as a sign of increased demand for generative AI with real-time information.
Sarah Hindlian-Bowler, head of Technology Research Americas at Macquarie, believes that the decrease in usage can be attributed to the challenges of scaling up rapidly from zero to 100 million users. The strain on the infrastructure may have resulted in reduced accuracy, prompting model adjustments and compliance considerations.
ChatGPT gained tremendous popularity, reaching 100 million monthly active users just two months after its launch in January. It quickly became the fastest-growing consumer application ever, with over 1.5 billion monthly visits, ranking it among the top 20 websites worldwide.
Interestingly, ChatGPT even surpassed Microsoft’s Bing, a search engine powered by OpenAI’s technology. However, in recent months, competition in the market has intensified with the introduction of Google’s Bard chatbot and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, both leveraging similar technology.
OpenAI released the ChatGPT app for iOS in May, potentially diverting some traffic from its website. Another plausible reason for the decline in usage could be the summer break for schools, as fewer students seek homework assistance. It’s worth noting that OpenAI decided to shut down the Browse with Bing feature on the app within two weeks after its release.
Data.ai reports that the ChatGPT app has been downloaded over 17 million times globally on iOS as of July 4th, with the U.S. market showing consistent popularity. On average, there were 530,000 weekly downloads during the first six full weeks of availability.
The recent slowdown in growth may actually help alleviate the substantial costs associated with running ChatGPT. The chatbot demands significant computing power to respond to user queries, which has been described by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as eye-watering in terms of expenses.
In conclusion, ChatGPT has experienced a decline in users and website traffic, possibly due to waning interest, increased competition, infrastructure strain, and the introduction of the ChatGPT app. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how OpenAI will adapt and address these challenges while continuing to provide a valuable AI-powered chatbot experience.
