In September 2024, OpenAI's ChatGPT achieved a significant milestone as its traffic surpassed that of Microsoft's Bing search engine for the first time. This AI-powered chatbot has seen significant growth in both web and mobile app usage.
According to data from Similarweb, ChatGPT's official website received over 3.1 billion global visits last month, a 112% increase from the previous year and an 18.7% rise from August.
This accomplishment is not only a source of pride for ChatGPT but also demonstrates its superior traffic compared to many other AI chatbots, such as Claude.ai, Perplexity.ai, and Character.ai. Even Microsoft Bing, which is positioning itself as an AI application platform, only had 1.8 billion visits in September. While ChatGPT's performance on the web is outstanding, competitors like Google Gemini offer services on multiple platforms, so the overall competitive gap may not be as large.
It is noteworthy that ChatGPT is now the eleventh most visited website globally, surpassing Amazon.com's 2.6 billion visits, although it still lags behind Google (82 billion visits) and YouTube (28 billion visits). These figures reflect the increasing importance of AI services in the global internet ecosystem.
In the United States, ChatGPT's visits exceeded Bing's for the first time in September, with 443 million and 404 million visits respectively. This trend indicates that as ChatGPT continues to grow, user interest and engagement are also increasing. Unlike the initial peak and subsequent decline in 2023, ChatGPT has shown steady growth in 2024.
Moreover, ChatGPT's mobile app has performed exceptionally well, with monthly active users in the US and UK increasing by 109% and 200.7% respectively. Globally, based on Android data, app usage has grown by 249%. In contrast, competitors like Bing and Microsoft CoPilot have seen more modest growth, and in some cases, a decline.
The rapid development of ChatGPT is largely due to OpenAI's expansion of its free services. Users can now access its top models and limited image generation capabilities for free. Although this strategy increases operating costs and puts more pressure on profitability, OpenAI needs to demonstrate that it can convert these free users into paying customers.
Key Points:
🌐 ChatGPT's global visits exceeded 3.1 billion in September 2024, surpassing Bing search engine for the first time.
📈 In the US, ChatGPT had 443 million visits, showing a continuous growth trend.
💡 OpenAI has expanded ChatGPT's free services, which may impact its future profitability.