[The Editors' Verdict] The Dawn of the Intention Economy and the End of Clickbait

Until now, the digital world has been an era of the "Attention Economy." It was a world where capturing consumers' gaze and time translated into money. Amid the flood of overflowing content, content creators evolved in ways to attract consumers' attention. The attention economy was both a great opportunity and a crisis for the media. While some places have achieved more subscribers and revenue through successful digital transformation than in the days when paper was primarily printed, these are exceptions. The majority fell into so-called "clickbait" practices, attaching provocative and sensational titles and images to gain attention.

Despite harsh external criticism and numerous voices of self-reflection, clickbait, which had been steadfast, has faced an unprecedented crisis. This is because the logic of the attention economy, which was the foundation of clickbait, is collapsing. The fatal blow to the attention economy was dealt by artificial intelligence (AI). Through AI, it has become easy to understand the search intent and context of users. By utilizing all personal data such as the location and time of the query, past query history, and patterns, AI provides exactly what the user wants. An economic structure centered on the consumer's "intention," that is, the era of the "Intention Economy," has opened alongside AI.

The shift from the attention economy to the intention economy is expected to completely change media consumption trends. Until now, when consumers searched for a specific keyword, a page displaying multiple titles in a list format appeared. Among them, they clicked on the most eye-catching article title. In contrast, AI search immediately presents a summary of the article that the user is most likely to actually read. According to Bain & Company's 2024 report, 8 out of 10 consumers rely on AI-based search results. Sixty percent of search results ended without moving to other websites.

A person using AI search function on a laptop. Photo by Getty Images Bank

AI-powered search services such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini have entered a growth trajectory. As of November last year, ChatGPT's traffic increased by 44%, and Perplexity recorded 15 million monthly users. Even Naver will launch an AI search service called "AI Briefing" on the 27th. All content creators competing for traffic within the Naver ecosystem are on edge. For now, concerns outweigh expectations. The equation of exposure and click revenue through existing search engines no longer works. AI search results, which combine numerous news articles and summarize only the core, reduce access to the original articles. When traffic decreases, advertising revenue falls, and brand exposure sharply declines.

However, the role of the media does not disappear in the era of the intention economy. AI performance depends on data quality. AI outputs are based on content from trustworthy media. Media companies, who did not want to engage in clickbait, can take this opportunity to focus on providing high-quality and reliable information. Of course, the news market in the intention economy will also be a fiercely competitive arena. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the work to ensure that my article is well exposed in search engines, will evolve into Search AI Optimization (SAO), which helps AI engines discover my article well. The marketing industry, which is more sensitive and responsive to traffic data than media companies, is already deeply engaged in SAO. The media must not be too late either.