ChatGPT App Store Finally Launches with Over 3 Million GPTs Worldwide, Ushering in the Era of Revenue Sharing Between Developers and OpenAI

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Is ChatGPT about to transform into a full-featured app like WeChat or DingTalk?

On January 10th, OpenAI's GPT Store officially went live, complete with categories, trending sections, and weekly highlights.

Like most app stores, the GPT Store includes a community leaderboard for popular downloads, allowing users to search by categories such as writing, lifestyle, and education. OpenAI's Greg Brockman stated this is the first step in creating your own ChatGPT. The product is still in experimental phase but aims for broader rollout in the coming weeks.

OpenAI will also feature useful and impactful GPTs weekly. The first batch of featured GPTs includes:

AllTrails: Provides personalized trail recommendations
Consensus: Searches and analyzes results from 200 million academic papers Code Tutor created by Khan Academy to help improve your coding skills

Canva that assists in designing presentations or social media posts

Books that helps you find your next read

CK-12 Flexi AI Tutor that helps you learn math and science anytime, anywhere

Since announcing the GPT Builder program last November, users have created over 3 million bots (called GPTs). So far, only users subscribed to OpenAI's paid plans have been able to create and use custom GPTs. This is an attempt by OpenAI to leverage its massive ChatGPT user base.

Previously, OpenAI allowed people to create their own GPTs, but sharing them was a cumbersome process that required copying and pasting URLs. Now, this is about to change. Several GPT creators reported that OpenAI informed developers on January 4: "We want to let you know that we will launch the GPT Store next week."

This is slightly later than OpenAI's originally planned November 2023 release date, as the company has gone through the turmoil of CEO Sam Altman's firing and rehiring. OpenAI also announced that it will initiate a revenue-sharing program with GPT creators in the first quarter of this year. GPT creators will be compensated based on the level of user interaction with their chatbots. However, OpenAI has yet to disclose specific details about the actual implementation, such as the exact formula for calculating payments: How will engagement be measured? If a user starts using a GPT but quickly closes it after a few seconds because they don't like it, will that still count toward the GPT's engagement metrics? Is this the only way to measure user engagement?

App store operators like Apple and Google typically take a cut of the revenue, usually around 30%. It remains to be seen how OpenAI will handle its revenue share. "Revenue sharing is very important," Altman said during the November press conference announcing GPTs. "We will pay a portion of the revenue to those who build the most useful GPTs."

From this perspective, the OpenAI GPT Store appears slightly different from Apple's App Store model (where third-party developers can set prices for their apps). It seems more akin to Spotify's system, where artists are compensated based on a formula that determines how much Spotify pays per stream. OpenAI stated that before opening the GPT Store, it established a new review system to ensure that customized GPTs comply with its brand guidelines and usage policies. It also updated instructions on how to report harmful or unsafe GPTs.

The GPT Store will be available to ChatGPT Plus users, enterprise users, and the new Team users (ChatGPT Team).

ChatGPT Team is a paid version of ChatGPT designed for small teams of around 150 people. Like the ChatGPT Enterprise version, ChatGPT Team users can access GPT-4, DALL-E 3, and OpenAI's advanced data analysis features while maintaining control over their data. OpenAI stated that ChatGPT Team's data and conversations will not be used to train any of its models. ChatGPT Team users can also create custom GPTs tailored to their team's specific needs or use other GPTs available in the store. The pricing for ChatGPT Team is as follows: $25 per user per month when billed annually, or $30 per user per month when billed monthly. The launch of GPT Store reflects OpenAI's more open attitude towards the artificial intelligence market. If successful, GPT Store will mark a new moment. It significantly lowers the development threshold for AI-native applications, allowing more people to participate in the innovation and application of artificial intelligence. At the same time, it also provides users with the possibility of economic returns, further stimulating their enthusiasm for innovation. Some analysts believe that the emergence of GPT Store more clearly defines the business model and will usher in the era of AI applications.