ChatGPT Lags Behind 3rd Party Apps

I've been getting a lot of questions about whether ChatGPT's release will end all 3rd party apps. Now that the official ChatGPT app has been out for a few weeks, I can share more than just my opinion.

If you missed that, you can give it a read here. It's still relevant.

First, let's talk about the environment ChatGPT entered.

I took the top three 3rd party ChatGPT apps, Ask AI, Genie, and Chat AI and followed their revenue on a weekly basis before and after ChatGPT's release. And this is all focused on the App Store because ChatGPT isn't available for Android just yet.

In early May, just before the official release, the three were earning $92K, $511K, and $805K, respectively according to our estimates. And that's all net, meaning what the developers keep after Apple takes its share.

Clearly, there's a king of AI right now and that's Ask AI, but keep in mind, this is weekly revenue, so they're all winners in my book.

ChatGPT rolled out and in its first week earned $164K. Very respectable! The competition stayed fairly the same.

The following week, ChatGPT's net revenue more than doubled to $446K, and that's where we also start seeing competitors dropping a bit. A little for Ask AI and a lot for Genie.

But then ChatGPT's growth slowed down. The hype was over and fast forward to last week, the numbers were interestingly different.

Ask AI's revenue grew to $847K, Genies dropped to $296K, and Chat AI rose a tiny bit to $98K. ChatGPT's revenue dropped to $278K.

That's a lot of data - what does it all mean?

3rd party apps aren't dead. Not by a long shot! The masses have yet to really equate ChatGPT's app with all the ChatGPT hype on mobile. Which is ironic, but the numbers make that very clear.

With the exception of Genie, which was on a decline even before ChatGPT rolled out, demand for AI apps is continuing to grow.

I said this before and I think it's still relevant - ChatGPT is amazing, but most people don't know how to use it. The evolution is tools that use ChatGPT.