Are 3rd Party ChatGPT Apps Still Making Money?
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Streaming Stagnation. Check out the full article for more insights.
When ChatGPT launched without a mobile app it was clear someone would "fix" that, and it didn't take long for a barrage of 3rd party apps to roll out.
Ask AI and Genie were two of the most popular and within a very short period of time, were making a lot of money.
In May, OpenAI launched an official app for ChatGPT and the obvious question was obvious - will people continue to pay those 3rd parties?
Yes, people still continued to pay the 3rd parties because for many, especially the ones not in tech, ChatGPT was just a name and any app that had it was good.
According to our estimates, Ask AI earned $3.8M of net revenue in April. Genie made $1.7M in April, and all of this is net which means what the publishers get to keep after Apple and Google take their share.
Both grew in May, to $4.5M and $2.1M in May. Massive numbers for apps riding the ChatGPT craze.
The official ChatGPT launched on the App Store in May, and the competition split in two directions. Genie started sloping down while Ask AI's revenue continued strong.
Fast forward a few months and things aren't looking as great. Although Ask AI makes more revenue than the official ChatGPT app, it took a massive hit in September and our projections show October will continue the drop.
In numbers, Ask AI's $4.6M of net revenue in August dropped to $3.9M in September. Genie's 2.1M in May has now shrunk to just $400K.
A big component of the growth of both was paid ads across many different channels, and that seems to have subsided in recent times. I wonder if the drop is a self-fulfilling prophecy or a reaction to dropping ROI.
But - I still believe there's more to ChatGPT than a textbox...
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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
