ChatGPT continues to exhibit strong growth momentum, while Google's NotebookLM has seen a surge in usage following the introduction of a new podcast feature. The overall user growth in the AI services industry remains stable, though the rate of increase is relatively gradual.
According to the latest data from SimilarWeb, ChatGPT achieved a new global visit count of 3.7 billion in October, representing a 17.2% increase from the previous month and a 115.9% year-over-year growth. OpenAI’s chatbot continues its upward trend, with daily active users of its mobile app in the United States increasing by 19% following 8% growth in August and 18.7% in September. The recently introduced ChatGPT search feature is expected to further drive these figures higher.
Google’s NotebookLM has achieved breakthrough growth. In October, its visit count surged by over 200% to reach 31.5 million, marking the second consecutive month of triple-digit growth. Although it still lags behind ChatGPT in popularity, this significant increase is attributed to a new AI podcast feature that engages two synthetic voices to discuss document content, quickly going viral on social media and bringing extensive attention to the service, which has been relatively obscure since its launch in the summer of 2023.
NotebookLM and ChatGPT serve distinct purposes: NotebookLM is focused on document interaction, whereas ChatGPT specializes in general conversations and current internet searches.
Overall growth in the wider AI sector remains relatively moderate. Reports indicate that Google plans to release Gemini 2.0 and a collaborative assistant tool named "Jarvis," which features web capabilities, in December. Currently, the Gemini website received 291.6 million visits in October, showing a 6.2% increase from the previous month. These figures do not fully reflect Gemini's usage, as the models have been integrated into many other Google services.
Other AI services are also exhibiting growth trends: Microsoft's Copilot saw an 87.6% increase, reaching 69.4 million visits, partly due to redirection from Bing Chat. Perplexity grew by 199.2% year-over-year, attaining 90.8 million visits, and Claude increased by 394.9% year-over-year to reach 84.1 million visits. Both Perplexity and Claude also experienced a month-over-month growth of 25.5%.
Considering the substantial investments in generative AI and the expected surge in early adoption, these growth rates appear relatively moderate and remain significantly below ChatGPT's levels. However, as these services become more useful and user-friendly, they are likely to accelerate in growth. Nevertheless, AI-based search engines such as Perplexity and ChatGPT with search capabilities still face challenges related to accuracy and misinformation.
