On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that it will launch ChatGPT advertisements in an additional 26 countries, marking the company's latest move to keep growing its still-nascent advertising business.
The AI firm has been promoting its eight-month-old advertising product as a new business pillar, alongside its existing revenue streams including enterprise contracts, individual subscriptions, and pay-as-you-go application programming interface (API) services. Digital advertising has long been a core revenue channel for other major tech companies such as Google and Meta.
OpenAI stated that free users and Go subscription users in countries including Argentina, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ukraine will begin seeing advertisements within ChatGPT. The company said the ads are independent of ChatGPT's responses to user queries, will not affect the answers generated by the model, and will carry clear labeling.
"Our goal is for ads to be helpful to users as they pursue their goals and make decisions, while also delivering desired results for businesses placing advertisements," OpenAI said in its announcement.
According to earlier reports, OpenAI's advertising business reached an annualized revenue of $1 billion in August, compared to just $100 million in March. OpenAI revealed on Wednesday that more than 100,000 advertisers have run promotional campaigns on the platform.
OpenAI said that with this expansion, ChatGPT advertising now covers a total of 89 countries. The company first began testing advertisements in the United States in February this year, a move that drew mockery from its main competitor Anthropic. Anthropic even made OpenAI's push into advertising the centerpiece of its Super Bowl commercial and pledged that its rival chatbot Claude will remain ad-free permanently.
The market widely expects both OpenAI and Anthropic to pursue massive IPOs, though neither company has publicly disclosed a listing timetable. OpenAI executives have signaled a goal to go public in 2027, while Anthropic management has been actively engaging with potential investors in recent weeks.
OpenAI said that in its next phase of development, the company plans to continue rolling out more ChatGPT ad formats, performance measurement tools, and advertising delivery methods, while exploring new ways for brands and ChatGPT users to engage natively.
"More and more people are using ChatGPT to explore their needs, compare options, and make decisions, and we see an opportunity: on one hand, to help users discover products and services, and on the other, to help businesses of all sizes achieve growth," OpenAI said.
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