ChatGPT's monthly traffic decline for the first time since launch, signaling shifting user trends

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that took the world by storm when it was launched in November, experienced a decline in monthly website traffic and unique visitors in June, marking the first time such a drop has occurred since its inception. Similarweb, an analytics firm, reported that global desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website decreased by 9.7 per cent in June compared to May, with unique visitors dropping by 5.7 per cent. The data further revealed that the average time spent by visitors on the website decreased by 8.5 per cent.

Senior Insights Manager at Similarweb, David Carr, suggested that the declining traffic could be an indication of the novelty of the chatbot wearing off. On the other hand, Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, interpreted the data as a reflection of the increasing demand for generative AI that provides real-time information.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has yet to respond to requests for comment on this decline. However, it is worth noting that ChatGPT experienced exponential growth since its launch, attracting 100 million monthly active users within two months and becoming the fastest-growing consumer application ever. As of January, it boasted over 1.5 billion monthly visits, ranking among the top 20 websites worldwide.

The popularity of ChatGPT surpassed that of Microsoft's search engine Bing, which also utilises OpenAI's technology. Furthermore, several competitors, such as Google's Bard chatbot, have entered the market in recent months. Microsoft's Bing search engine also offers a chatbot powered by OpenAI to users free of charge.

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The launch of the ChatGPT app on iOS in May may have contributed to a decline in website traffic, as users opted to interact with the chatbot through the app instead. The decrease in usage could also be attributed, in part, to the summer break for schools, with fewer students seeking assistance with homework during that time.

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Data from data.ai indicates that the ChatGPT app has been downloaded over 17 million times globally on iOS as of July 4. The analytics firm reported that downloads peaked on May 31 and have remained popular in the United States, with an average of 530,000 downloads per week during its first six weeks of availability.

The recent slowdown in growth may help alleviate the high operational costs associated with running ChatGPT, which requires significant computing power to handle user queries. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has previously described the cost of running the service as "eye-watering."

While ChatGPT is free to use, it also offers a premium subscription that allows users to access OpenAI's more advanced model, GPT-4, for a monthly fee of $20 or Rs 2,000 in India. 

OpenAI anticipates generating $200 million in revenue this year. In addition to ChatGPT, the company earns revenue by selling API access to its AI models directly to developers and enterprises, as well as through its partnership with Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in the company.

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