Alternative Chatbots are Also Attracting Users
The Rise of Competing AI Chatbots
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is widely recognized as the leading chatbot application globally. However, recent data indicates that several competitor services are quickly gaining ground. Analytics firms, including Similarweb and Sensor Tower, reveal significant growth in the usage of other chatbot platforms such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot.
Growth in Competitor Chatbots
According to statistics from Similarweb, the user traffic for AI chatbots has seen promising increases. For instance, Google’s Gemini attracted an impressive 10.9 million average daily visits in March, marking a 7.4% rise compared to the previous month. Similarly, Microsoft’s Copilot also experienced growth, reaching 2.4 million daily visits, which is a 2.1% increase from February.
In addition, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot registered 3.3 million average daily visits during the same month. A noteworthy mention is the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, whose chatbot surpassed 16.5 million visits in March. Likewise, xAI’s Grok chatbot, which launched its web application just a few months prior, achieved the same number of daily visits as DeepSeek.
Although these figures show solid performance, they still fall short when compared to ChatGPT’s staggering 500 million weekly active users by late March. David Carr, an editor at Similarweb, emphasizes that the race for the second place in the chatbot arena is becoming increasingly competitive.
Insights on Market Competition
Carr explains that despite the recent decline of 25% in daily visits for DeepSeek, it currently holds the second spot in chatbot traffic. However, xAI’s Grok is experiencing remarkable momentum, with a stunning 800% increase in traffic from the previous month.
This swift rise in the user bases of AI companies’ mobile chatbot apps is noteworthy and has been linked to the recent rollout of advanced AI models.
Recent Developments and Features
Sensor Tower provided insights that show the Claude app saw a significant 21% increase in weekly active users during the week of February 24, coinciding with the release of Anthropic’s latest model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. In contrast, the Gemini app saw a 42% growth in weekly active users shortly after Google made its Gemini 2.0 Flash model widely available.
Abraham Yousef, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower, suggests that this growth isn’t solely due to new models. He highlights the importance of newly introduced features, which enhance the user experience. For example, Google recently integrated a "canvas" feature into Gemini, enabling users to preview coding projects. Similarly, Anthropic has been consistently adding innovative tools to its Claude client.
Factors Driving User Growth
Yousef noted several factors contributing to the growing popularity of AI chatbot applications: the recent introduction of popular models, increasing consumer interest, the implementation of new features, and the emergence of various novel use cases. All these elements collectively fueled user growth for these AI chatbot apps.
Despite these advances by competitors, it seems that OpenAI is not in a state of concern yet. Yousef pointed out that as of March, ChatGPT had ten times the number of mobile app weekly active users when compared to the combined numbers for Gemini and Claude. This substantial lead suggests that ChatGPT still dominates the market while facing rising competition from innovative chatbot platforms.
