Weekly Active Users Surpass 2 Million
Growth Accelerates After DeepSeek Download Ban
As China's AI DeepSeek became embroiled in controversies over security-related issues, OpenAI's ChatGPT was reported to have benefited from the situation.
According to Mobile Index by IGAWorks on the 23rd, ChatGPT's weekly active users (WAU) on mobile surpassed 2 million this month. It first exceeded the 2 million mark in the first week of February (3rd?9th) with 2,025,546 users, and continued its upward trend last week (10th?16th) with 2,092,797 users.
ChatGPT had steadily maintained weekly user numbers in the 1.5 million range around the end and beginning of the year. When DeepSeek appeared last month, predictions suggested intensified AI competition, but in the last week of January in Korea (January 27?February 2), ChatGPT's weekly users rose to 1,804,499, showing a concurrent increase with DeepSeek.
After security concerns about DeepSeek were raised, movements to ban its use spread among government, public institutions, and private companies. Consequently, ChatGPT absorbed a large portion of the social interest focused on AI as its own demand. In particular, since the Personal Information Protection Commission temporarily suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in Korea on the 17th due to data leakage suspicions, this trend is expected to continue for some time. ChatGPT's daily users increased from 760,766 on the day before the DeepSeek download ban (16th) to 829,459 on the day of the ban, and further rose to 855,979 on the following day, the 18th.
This phenomenon is occurring not only in Korea but worldwide. Brad Lightcap, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of OpenAI, stated in an interview with CNBC on the 20th that "As of February, ChatGPT's weekly active users reached 400 million." This represents a 33% increase compared to 300 million in December last year. Compared to August last year (200 million), it has roughly doubled in six months.
Additionally, corporate customers have also increased significantly. Currently, the number of paid corporate users of ChatGPT is 2 million, about twice as many as six months ago. Major clients include ride-sharing company Uber, global investment bank Morgan Stanley, pharmaceutical company Moderna, and telecommunications company T-Mobile.
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