The release of OpenAI鈥檚 conversational chatbot ChatGPT late last year set off the alarm bells at Google鈥檚 headquarters in Mountain View, California, as the company鈥檚 management viewed the nascent technology as a serious threat to its core search business. To make things worse, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is working closely with Microsoft, one of Google鈥檚 last remaining competitors in the search market (if you can even call it competition).
And sure enough, Google鈥檚 worst fears with respect to ChatGPT became reality when a new Bing running on a next-generation OpenAI model that is 鈥渕ore powerful than ChatGPT鈥 and customized specifically for search. 鈥淎I will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all 鈥 search,鈥 Satya Nadella, Microsoft鈥檚 chairman and CEO, said in a statement, calling the AI-powered versions of Bing search and Edge browser 鈥渁n AI copilot for the web.鈥
That announcement was arguably the most obvious attack on Google and its search business since the launch of Bing in 2009. And while one could argue that Bing鈥檚 arrival hardly made a dent in Google鈥檚 dominance, this time things feel differently, as technological shifts have often coincided with shifts in the balance of power 鈥 just ask Nokia. But even if Google successfully manages to defend its dominant position in the search market, losing just a couple of percentage points in market share would translate into billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue. According to estimates from 糖心破解版 Market 糖心破解版, global search advertising revenue amounted to $252 billion last year and could climb to almost $400 billion by 2027.
