And that's nice for them.
- your comment about lock-in for existing users only applies historically to existing users.
ChatGPT is the brand name for consumer LLM apps. They are getting the majority of new subscribers as well. Their competitors - Claude, Gemini are nowhere near. chatgpt.com is the 5th most visited site on the planet.
You're aware they already announced they'll add ads in 2026.
And the circular trades are already rattling public markets.
How do they monetize users on the base tier, to any extent? By adding e-commerce? And once they add ads how do they avoid that compromising the integrity of the product?
Netflix introduced ads and it quickly became their most popular tier. The vast majority of people don't care about ads unless it's really obnoxious.
- your comment about lock-in for existing users only applies historically to existing users.
- Sora 2 is a major pivot that signals what segment OpenAI is/isn't targeting next: Scott Galloway was saying today it's not intended to be used by 99% of casual users; they're content consumers, only for content creators and studios.