Ads spread their wings on ChatGPT: OpenAI expands advertising to more countries

The pilot advertising program that launched last February on ChatGPT will soon be extended to the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico.

Advertising appears destined to become ubiquitous on ChatGPT. OpenAI announced yesterday that the pilot advertising program launched last February on the popular AI chatbot will be rolled out in the UK, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico in the coming weeks.

This pilot advertising program was previously available only in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

«We are delighted to expand the ChatGPT ad pilot to new regions following the strong interest shown by advertisers looking to reach users in a more conversational and intent-driven environment,» explains David Dugan, Head of Global Ads Solutions at OpenAI.

As part of the pilot program launched approximately two months ago on ChatGPT, users of this platform are potentially exposed to ads when they make a query.

OpenAI’s foray into the advertising business (where the company says it is listening very carefully to feedback from both users and advertisers) seems to be going smoothly. Just yesterday, the company announced the launch of a self-service advertising platform for ChatGPT.

OpenAI has been experimenting with ads on ChatGPT for approximately three months.

In January of this year, OpenAI announced that it would begin showing ads to users who access ChatGPT for free, as well as to subscribers of the low-cost ChatGPT Go plan.

Initially, OpenAI required brands interested in advertising on ChatGPT to make a minimum investment of $200,000, which is now substantially lower. The OpenAI advertising program was initially scheduled to run until the end of March, but the company later decided to extend it after attracting interest from major advertisers.

To cater precisely to these advertisers, OpenAI has launched new advertising-focused products that, to some extent, mimic the functionality of online advertising giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon.

One such product is an «ads manager» that the company began testing in March, allowing advertisers to determine whether their campaigns have resulted in transactions.

Furthermore, at the end of April, OpenAI updated its privacy policy to share more user data with advertisers and its adtech partners. The parent company of ChatGPT has also expanded its adtech partner ecosystem, enabling advertisers to purchase ads on the platform through companies like StackAdapt, Kargo, and Pacvue.

OpenAI urgently needs to secure new revenue streams to offset the colossal expenses the company incurs to maintain its leading position in the AI ​​race. The company plans, not surprisingly, to invest a whopping $600 billion in infrastructure over the next four years.

Will advertising be enough to help OpenAI achieve profitability?

It’s unclear, however, whether advertising revenue, combined with subscription fees, will be enough for OpenAI to ever become a truly financially sound company.

The company estimates that advertising will generate approximately $2.5 billion in revenue by 2026. And by 2030, this figure could skyrocket to $100 billion.

Perplexity was the first major AI company to jump into advertising in 2024, but last year it decided to halt its advertising plans. Anthropic, another major player in this field, has categorically ruled out advertising on its platforms. In fact, during the last Super Bowl, the company launched a campaign mocking the introduction of advertising on ChatGPT.

Google, for its part, reportedly told some advertisers last year of its intention to integrate advertising messages into Gemini, but later said it had no plans in this regard and later asserted that it did not rule out the introduction of ads on this platform.

Source: www.marketingdirecto.com