Unique Research · Ranking / a16z consumer genAI · October 12, 2023 · KEEP type ranking — ~3,140 CJK / Top-50 traffic findings preserved
Olivia Moore (a16z consumer investing partner; ex-CRV, Goldman) — How Are Consumers Using Generative AI?. Nine months after ChatGPT; seven months after it became the fastest consumer app to 100M MAU. Method: SimilarWeb Top-50 generative-AI web apps by monthly visits (desktop+mobile web, data through Jun 2023); for apps with mobile clients, Sensor Tower “traffic” ≈ MAUs × sessions/MAU/month folded into ranking. Excludes app-only companies and Discord-only activity. Ranking is a trend tool, not an exhaustive AI-platform census.
Core takeaways
- GenAI apps rose fast from a blank sheet — most leading apps built from scratch; 80% of sites did not exist a year earlier. Traditional companies are AI-augmenting, but the stickiest UX is often new.
- ChatGPT’s lead — ~60% of Top-50 monthly traffic; ~global #24 site. Still small vs WhatsApp/YouTube/Facebook.
- LLM assistants dominate (~68% of Top-50 user traffic) — companions and content tools rising (image gen 41% of content category traffic; pro writing 26%; video 8%).
- Early winners, most categories still contestable — few 1st–2nd gaps >2×; average ~50% MoM growth over prior 6 months.
- Organic acquisition + willingness to pay — most have little paid; 90% already generating revenue, nearly all subscription; avg ~$21/mo (~$252/yr).
- Mobile still emerging — browser-first so far; more mobile-first expected as stacks mature.
1. Built from scratch around genAI
Only 5 of Top 50 are big-tech apps or acquisitions: Bard (Google), Poe (Quora), QuillBot (Course Hero), Pixlr (123RF), Clipchamp (Microsoft). PitchBook: up to 48% of the rest bootstrapped with no outside capital; another 15% raised >$50M. Stack split among Top 50 roughly thirds: train proprietary / fine-tune / UI wrappers — but among Top 10, half own models, 4 fine-tune, only 1 wrapper. Ex-ChatGPT (OpenAI’s ~$11.3B skews averages): proprietary-model cos avg raise ~$98M; open-model ~$20M; wrappers ~$9M.
2. ChatGPT leads
~1.6B monthly visits / ~200M monthly users (Jun 2023). #2 Character.AI ~21% of ChatGPT’s scale — on mobile, Sensor Tower DAUs comparable to ChatGPT with higher retention. Combined web+app, ChatGPT sits near Reddit/LinkedIn/Twitch — far below mega platforms.
3. Assistants dominate; companions & creative rise
Beyond ChatGPT: Bard and Poe both Top 5. Model hubs punch above count: Civitai (images) and Hugging Face both Top 10 — and web traffic understates local downloads.
4. Categories still open
Most 1st–2nd traffic gaps <2×. Specialization alongside general tools: Midjourney leads broad image gen while Leonardo (game assets) grows millions of MUV alongside Midjourney’s Discord growth.
5. Healthy acquisition; users pay
GenAI flipped the paid-UA treadmill. Bottom-quartile genAI apps: only ~2% paid traffic vs ~70% for a16z’s non-AI consumer-subscription benchmark of 150 apps. Growth via X, Reddit, Discord, email, word of mouth. ARPU (~$21/mo) above typical Calm/Headspace/Duolingo bands (<$70/yr; ~$10/mo).
6. Mobile still new
ChatGPT took ~6 months to ship mobile. Image-gen APIs let Lensa/WOMBO spike then fade. Only ~15 Top-50 have mobile apps; almost all get <10% of traffic from apps vs web. Exceptions: PhotoRoom (~88% app), Character.AI (~46%), Speechify (~20%) — higher sessions/visitor on mobile. Users spend ~36 more minutes/day on mobile than desktop (4.1h vs 3.5h) — expect more mobile-first genAI.