TLDR: A recent report highlights a significant increase in global AI application usage, with users averaging 50 sessions. ChatGPT, in particular, is rapidly gaining traction, rivaling traditional search engines in daily usage and generating substantial revenue. This shift is impacting the media ecosystem, prompting publishers to adapt to new content optimization strategies for AI models.
Global users are increasingly engaging with artificial intelligence applications, averaging 50 sessions per user, according to recent industry reports. Leading this surge is ChatGPT, which is demonstrating a growing influence across the digital landscape, challenging the dominance of traditional search engines and significantly impacting the media industry.
Data from 2025 indicates that ChatGPT handles an impressive 1 billion searches per day. While this figure still lags behind Google’s colossal 13.7 billion daily searches, it signifies a rapid adoption rate for the AI assistant. Alphabet’s platforms, including Google, YouTube, and Google Play, collectively account for 19.1 billion daily queries, underscoring the scale of the traditional search market. However, ChatGPT’s ability to log 1 billion daily searches highlights its embedding into people’s jobs and routines.
Beyond search volume, ChatGPT has proven to be a significant revenue generator. Individual users worldwide have spent an estimated $2 billion on the ChatGPT mobile app across iOS and Android platforms since its launch in May 2023. In 2025 alone, the application’s revenue soared by 673 percent year-over-year, with 318 million downloads—2.8 times higher than the previous year. India leads in lifetime installs at 13.7 percent, followed by the U.S. at 10.3 percent. Notably, American users contribute over 38 percent of ChatGPT’s global revenue, with an average spending of $10 per download.
ChatGPT’s financial success is partly attributed to premium features like the ChatGPT Plus subscription, priced at $20 per month, offering access to advanced models such as GPT-5, increased usage limits, and enhanced functionality. The app has also outperformed competitors in lifetime revenue per install, averaging $2.91, surpassing Anthropic’s Claude ($2.55), Elon Musk’s Grok ($0.75), and Microsoft’s Copilot ($0.27).
This rise of generative AI assistants like ChatGPT is profoundly affecting the media ecosystem. These AI tools are diverting traffic from traditional online news sites, consequently reducing advertising revenue and impacting subscription conversions—a critical blow to an already struggling industry. Matt Karolian, Vice President of Research and Development at Boston Globe Media, warned that ‘The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers everywhere. No one is immune from the AI summaries storm gathering on the horizon.’
When AI summaries are present in search results, users click on suggested links to source articles half as often compared to traditional searches. This trend is leading to a ‘devastating loss of visitors’ for online media. According to Northeastern University professor John Wihbey, these trends ‘will accelerate, and pretty soon we will have an entirely different web.’
In response, media companies are exploring ‘Generative Engine Optimization’ (GEO), a strategy that involves structuring content for AI models with clear labeling, good organization, comprehensible text, and a strong presence on platforms crawled by AI companies. However, a key debate remains whether to allow AI crawlers to access their content, with many publishers blocking them due to concerns over fair market value for their content. Licensing agreements, such as those between the New York Times and Amazon, and Google and Associated Press, are emerging as potential solutions.
The Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report indicates that approximately 15 percent of individuals under 25 now use generative AI for news consumption. This shift raises concerns about information sourcing and credibility, potentially confusing readers about the origins of news. As Karolian emphasized, ‘At some point, someone has to do the reporting. Without original journalism, none of these AI platforms would have anything to summarize.’
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The future may see a convergence rather than outright competition between AI and traditional search. Google is integrating AI features like Gemini, and ChatGPT now has web access via Bing. This blurring of lines suggests that users may ultimately benefit from the strengths of both technologies.
