ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, setting a record for the fastest app to reach a 100 million users, which it hit in two months. The implications of this tool are far-reaching, universities...

Annual users of ChatGPT worldwide are expected to grown considerably in the coming months. In 2022, around 57 million people used ChatGPT, with this number increasing to roughly 100 million by January 2023.

In March 2025, ChatGPT’s mobile app recorded over 64.26 million App Store and Google Play downloads worldwide. Google's Gemini AI Assistant mobile app was released on February 8, 2024, and was initially available in the U.S. market only. In the same month, the app registered around 13.92 million downloads. Regional preferences shape AI app adoption ChatGPT has a strong global presence with over 400.61 million monthly active users in February 2025, but regional preferences vary. In the United States, ChatGPT had a 45 percent download market share, compared to Google Gemini's 11 percent. However, Gemini emerged as the preferred generative AI app in India, representing a 52 percent market share. This competitive landscape now also includes Chinese-based players like ByteDance's Doubao and DeepSeek, indicating an even more diverse and evolving AI worldwide ecosystem. The AI-powered revolution in online search The global AI market has experienced substantial growth, exceeding 184 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 and projected to surpass 826 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. This expansion is mirrored in user behavior, with around 15 million adults in the United States using AI-powered tools as their first option for online search in 2024. Additionally, 68 percent of U.S. adults reported the use of AI-powered search engines for exploring new topics in 2024, with another 44 percent of respondents utilizing these tools to learn or explain concepts.

In February 2025, ChatGPT was the most popular artificial intelligence (AI) application worldwide, with over 400.61 million monthly active users (MAU). The ByteDance-owned chatbot Doubao had around 81.91 million MAU, making it the most popular Chinese-based tool of this kind. ChatGPT-operated Nova Assistant ranked third with 62.79 million MAU and was followed by Chinese-based DeepSeek with around 61.81 million MAU.

In January 2024, ChatGPT online domain chat.openai.com registered over **** percent of its traffic as originating in the United States. Users based in India generated approximately **** percent of the total visits to the chatbot platform, while users in Indonesia accounted for *** percent of the total visits to the website. Visits from Brazil represented the fourth-largest group for the platform, generating more than **** percent of the total traffic recorded in the examined period.

A chatbot from Chinese AI lab DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the market in January, due to its ability to perform mathematics, coding and reasoning at a similar level to ChatGPT and other top-tier...

In May 2025, Taobao, the Chinese e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group, led the shopping apps in China with over *** million monthly active users. Meanwhile, Pinduoduo, which is famous for its group buying model, had ***** million active users in the same month.

Many Chinese fans of anime and manga adore Bilibili, the top-rated video streaming platform. The first quarter of 2024 saw the Chinese platform's average monthly active users rebound to 341.5 million, increasing from the previous quarter. The company has not updated the figure. Creating values from an engaged community Launched in Shanghai in 2009, Bilibili targets online video users from the ACG (Anime, Comic, and Gaming) subculture. Special features like bullet chats and virtual gifting help foster real-time user interactions and a supportive creator-fan dynamic. This reflects entirely on its earnings: 40 percent of its net revenue in 2022 was derived from valued-added services, which fueled by sales of virtual items. Other business segments Beyond video streaming, Bilibili is also a prominent player in the Chinese gaming scene. A 2023 survey by Statista Consumer Insights found that Bilibili was the most used video gaming site by brands in China. The company is not solely present in its home country. Globally, Bilibili’s in-app purchase revenue was estimated at 178 million U.S. dollars in 2023.

As of March 2025, Google represented 79.1 percent of the global online search engine market on desktop devices. Despite being much ahead of its competitors, this represents the lowest share ever recorded by the search engine in these devices for over two decades. Meanwhile, its long-time competitor Bing accounted for 12.21 percent, as tools like Yahoo and Yandex held shares of over 2.9 percent each. Google and the global search market Ever since the introduction of Google Search in 1997, the company has dominated the search engine market, while the shares of all other tools has been rather lopsided. The majority of Google revenues are generated through advertising. Its parent corporation, Alphabet, was one of the biggest internet companies worldwide as of 2024, with a market capitalization of 2.02 trillion U.S. dollars. The company has also expanded its services to mail, productivity tools, enterprise products, mobile devices, and other ventures. As a result, Google earned one of the highest tech company revenues in 2024 with roughly 348.16 billion U.S. dollars. Search engine usage in different countries Google is the most frequently used search engine worldwide. But in some countries, its alternatives are leading or competing with it to some extent. As of the last quarter of 2023, more than 63 percent of internet users in Russia used Yandex, whereas Google users represented little over 33 percent. Meanwhile, Baidu was the most used search engine in China, despite a strong decrease in the percentage of internet users in the country accessing it. In other countries, like Japan and Mexico, people tend to use Yahoo along with Google. By the end of 2024, nearly half of the respondents in Japan said that they had used Yahoo in the past four weeks. In the same year, over 21 percent of users in Mexico said they used Yahoo.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most popular website worldwide with 136 billion average monthly visits. The online platform has held the top spot as the most popular website since June 2010, when it pulled ahead of Yahoo into first place. Second-ranked YouTube generated more than 72.8 billion monthly visits in the measured period. The internet leaders: search, social, and e-commerce Social networks, search engines, and e-commerce websites shape the online experience as we know it. While Google leads the global online search market by far, YouTube and Facebook have become the world’s most popular websites for user generated content, solidifying Alphabet’s and Meta’s leadership over the online landscape. Meanwhile, websites such as Amazon and eBay generate millions in profits from the sale and distribution of goods, making the e-market sector an integral part of the global retail scene. What is next for online content? Powering social media and websites like Reddit and Wikipedia, user-generated content keeps moving the internet’s engines. However, the rise of generative artificial intelligence will bring significant changes to how online content is produced and handled. ChatGPT is already transforming how online search is performed, and news of Google's 2024 deal for licensing Reddit content to train large language models (LLMs) signal that the internet is likely to go through a new revolution. While AI's impact on the online market might bring both opportunities and challenges, effective content management will remain crucial for profitability on the web.