Google taught the world that extraordinary income could be achieved offering free products. During the last quarter of the century he has exploited conscientiously The famous “If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.” He has offered fantastic services (Gmail, Maps, Search, YouTube) for free, but with a big condition: in them collect information and shows ads.
Users have compensated us, and despite whom, despite the privacy included – most have ended falling into their nets. Many companies do the same and offer at least free or cheaper versions of their services if we accept that ads (Spotify, Netflix) are shown, but curiously the world of AI does not just adopt that model.
In fact, OpenAI raises a classic freemium model: The free version of Chatgpt allows access to some of its functions, but only in a limited way. You can ask a certain number of questions a day and you will not have access to their experimental or more advanced models and functions (Operator) or, if you have it, it will be almost testimonial (Deep Research). To “unlock” those capabilities touches to pay, and Sometimes it’s time to pay a lot.
Arriving before anyone with chatgpt and improving it constantly has worked. OpenAI already has 400 million weekly active users, a 33% increase on the figure they had just three months ago.
Chatgpt has managed to be “the AI of the town”, which is the same as Google with its search engine, but Google ended up deciding that to continue growing the ideal was to offer a free service for users but full of ads. The question is whether that will end up going with AI.
The question is no longer so much if we will see intercalated ads in our conversations with the chatbots, but when we will see them.
Some believe that is inevitable. Perplexity was one of the first to raise that possibilityand the question is no longer so much if we will see intercalated ads in our conversations with the chatbots, but when we will see them.
That is precisely what Ben Thompson also states In Stratecherystating that OpenAi “has moved too slowly: At this point the company should have a version with advertising (…) Openai is very interested in offering free users the best models from the point of view of competition and being profitable, and that means advertising. “
That’s how it is. As happened with Google, offering a complete, free and advertisement product is the almost inevitable path for OpenAi (and for its competitors) because it is the form (perhaps the only one, as Thompson argues) to conquer the world and all those users who want Use those options, but without paying them. And there are many, as Google has demonstrated with its platforms.
Thompson explains that offering a free version with advertisements “maximizes the market to which it can be directed, and at the same time allows continuously increasing user income.” But that does not mean that Openai You cannot or will not have premium subscriptionsand in fact like any other company in this sector, combining advertising with subscriptions is the clear model for consumer content companies.
On another level, of course, there will be companies. Google offers subscriptions such as Google One (more aimed at individuals) and Google Workspace, more companies oriented. In it includes things such as business email accounts, storage, business support and special controls: it is a twist on its free services, but it is a return without advertising and very thought for companies.
OpenAi could apply the same story. He is already doing it with his Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans, who are precisely aimed at those business environments and will continue to make sense. And yet They have a golden opportunity To conquer many more users. One that, we want it or not, is full of ads.
We will see if they do.
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