How would you grow ChatGPT?
ChatGPT’s growth depends on four moats. What would you bet on?
Court trial exhibits released as part of the antitrust case against Google mention two moats in the document, but unfortunately the details are redacted.
Yet the bet is bold: position ChatGPT as the best alternative towards competitors.
No advantage lasts forever. In H1, we're investing in two moats: [...] and [...]. These will drive DAUs and make it clear why ChatGPT is better. Two other moats will materialize in H2. Soon, we'll make ChatGPT [...]. If we succeed at driving action on the [...] to power search and tasks. ChatGPT is a super assistant that deeply understands you and serves as your interface to the internet. To fully be that interface, we need a search index and the ability to take actions on the web. That means [...].
Here’s what I think those four moats could be:
- Frictionless commercial experiences: a neutral, ad-free shopping interface built on trust and convenience. No need to scan ten links and compare endlessly. ChatGPT recommends a product, checks availability with Shopify based websites, and completes the checkout in one flow. If OpenAI takes a cut of the transaction (like an affiliate), it doesn’t need to serve ads; preserving neutrality and deepening user trust.
- Default answer engine in Safari: Apple replacing Google with ChatGPT in Safari’s search flow. DAUs skyrocket not by changing behavior, but by changing defaults.
- Building or acquiring a web browser: get knowledge about the user's context across sessions, apps, and devices. It could contextualize queries, remember preferences, and tie browsing tightly into LLM-powered workflows.
- Light agent: maybe through the acquisition of Io or something else but a transformative integration that would disrupt the usage of the web as we know it today: a new interface paradigm faster than typing, always available.It could let users talk to ChatGPT in micro-moments throughout the day.
It seems aligned with their broader strategy to outperform the competition:
It's about solving more and more use-cases and gradually pulling users in.