# Actually, ChatGPT doesn’t need to make money at all.

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2023-02-05
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/actually-chatgpt-doesn-t-need-to-make-money-at-all

## Content

ChatGPT heralds an incredible future of AI we have always dreamt of, just not that soon.Have you wondered how would ChatGPT make money? I don’t think they need to. So long as they continue to astound, attract and go viral, bringing in users en masse, OpenAI will reap all the benefits and generate billions. “The startup has already inspired rivals and companies building applications atop its generative AI software, which includes the image maker DALL-E 2. OpenAI charges developers licensing its technology about a penny or a little more to generate 20,000 words of text, and about 2 cents to create an image from a written prompt, according to its website.” Translation: OpenAI licensing game is making it a lot of money. The flywheel has been engineered and it has begun spinning. Oh and it spins like CRAZY.ChatGPT is just one product built on the stack of OpenAI database.Imagine this. OpenAI works on their tech, churns the data, chews on it for years, building the models and AI diligently. But those are just backend stuff. The brain, the memory, the data and the knowledge. They needed a brilliant frontend. A way to onboard millions of users quickly and easily. They cannot afford to knock on doors or spend millions on Google Ads and marketing. They needed to reach critical mass ASAP. That is where ChatGPT comes in.It doesn’t matter that nobody knows what is OpenAI, as long ChatGPT goes batshit viral, they still make bank easily.Say hi to one of the most brilliant hacks in growth hacking history. In a time where everyone is more accustomed to typing, text messages and bots, consumers can easily see the appeal of using a chatbot to get what they want. The timing was near-perfect. With the pandemic, people staying indoors, minimising social interactions. Texting was getting really, really comfortable. The average joe could probably understand, use and love ChatGPT faster than it takes for them to read a website or a tutorial to learn about ChatGPT. The beauty was that ChatGPT just works. It is simple, effortless and so understandable. Social media influencers, TikTokers, celebrities, tech bros and even your aunt loved it. They are as mesmerised by the intelligence and ease of use as they are with the simplicity and virality.Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is a remarkable genius and a master growth hacker too.Few people really heard of OpenAI. But ChatGPT onboarded 1M users in 5 days. It has 100M in 2 months. It will likely hit 1B users in Q3 of 2023. That is staggering. Using ChatGPT as a magnet to funnel everyone in, they inadvertently catch the businesses, influencers and creators who will be willing to pay real money for the APIs and backend of OpenAI. And when more businesses and creators pay, use and share their products and results, it creates more awareness, exposure and bringing in more interested users. What a smooth flywheel indeed. And now they are projecting $1B in revenue in 2024. Gentle reminder, they made $0 in revenue for years.Microsoft invested $1B into OpenAI but it seems like they would be getting their returns very quickly.But once the flywheel is turned on, it will generate revenue and feed itself. That is the very nature of flywheels! It is designed to be sustainable and growing. The beauty of it right? Only if you design the flywheel perfectly and execute the start well of course. So many flywheels fail and it is incredible to execute the go-to-market strategy well. Remember, ChatGPT is but one of many potentially, eyebrow-raising, virality-inducing, bedazzling frontends of OpenAI. Oh and they just released ChatGPT Plus for $20/month. - Does OpenAI have an amazing flywheel with ChatGPT? - #startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #entrepreneurship #strategy #eth #btc #crypto #chatgpt #openai #samaltman #NFT #profits #frontend #tvl #backend #algorithms #microsoft #flywheel

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