ChatGPT Site Visits Dropped, But Signs Of Recovery Are Visible

JAKARTA -  ChatGPT, a very popular artificial intelligence chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022, experienced a decrease in monthly website visits for three consecutive months in August. But signs of the downturn may soon be over, according to analytics firm Similarweb.

ChatGPT website visits worldwide via desktop and mobile devices decreased by 3.2% to 1.43 billion in August, after around a 10% drop from each of the previous two months. The amount of time visitors spend on the website has also decreased each month since March, from an average of 8.7 minutes to 7 minutes in August.

However, the number of unique visitors worldwide in August, increased to 180.5 million users from 180 million users.

The reopening of schools this September will probably help increase ChatGPT traffic and usage, and some schools are already starting to adopt it. ChatGPT traffic in the United States increased slightly in August, in line with the start of schools in America.

"Students seeking help with homework seem to be part of the story: the percentage of young users on the website fell over the summer and is now starting to improve," said David F. Carr of Similarweb, which regularly tracks ChatGPT and its competitors, as quoted by Reuters.

ChatGPT fuels powerful use of generative AI in daily tasks from editing to programming and reached 100 million monthly active users in January, two months after launch. Generative AI technologies use past data to create new content, such as writing essays or poetry.

Prior to the launch of Threads by Meta, ChatGPT was the fastest growing consumer app ever, and is now one of the top websites in the world.

Several ChatGPT competitors, including Google's Bard chatbot, have launched this year. Microsoft's Bing search engine also provides a chatbot powered by OpenAI for free.

OpenAI also released the ChatGPT application on the iOS system last May, which can reduce some visits from its website. ChatGPT can be used for free but also provides a premium subscription for USD 20 (IDR 300 thousand) per month.

In addition to ChatGPT, OpenAI makes money by selling access to its AI model to developers and enterprises directly and through a partnership with Microsoft, which has invested more than USD 10 billion (IDR 152 trillion) into the company.