OpenAI Hires First Marketing Executive... Strengthening Revenue Generation

OpenAI Takes Decisive Action Amid Intensifying Generative AI Competition

Yonhap News

OpenAI, the developer of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT, has reportedly hired its first marketing executive. This move is seen as a reflection of OpenAI's sense of crisis as competition in generative AI intensifies and its market share gradually declines.

According to the US financial media CNBC on the 3rd (local time), OpenAI recently appointed Kate Lauch, former CMO of Coinbase, as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Lauch is a marketing expert who worked at Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) for over 11 years before joining Coinbase in August 2021.

Lauch posted on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), "This Friday will be my last day at Coinbase," adding, "I will be moving to OpenAI as its first CMO and will start working from Monday."

CNBC interpreted that although OpenAI, which sparked the generative AI boom, had not prioritized marketing until now, its strategy has changed as competition in generative AI has become fierce.

OpenAI still holds the number one market share, but a downward trend has been confirmed. According to US venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, OpenAI's market share fell from 50% last year to 34% this year, while Anthropic, supported by Amazon, doubled from 12% to 24%. Google’s share rose from 7% to 12%. OpenAI is also competing with Meta, xAI, Cohere, Mistral, and others.

To avoid falling behind in the ‘AI arms race,’ OpenAI is actively pursuing revenue generation. A representative example is its consideration of placing advertisements on its products. OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Sarah Friar, recently stated in an interview with foreign media, “OpenAI is considering advertising placement, and the timing and method of introduction will be carefully reviewed.”

It is known that OpenAI has already recruited advertising personnel from competitors such as Meta and Google. In May, Shivakumar Venkataraman, who led Google’s search advertising team, was hired as a vice president at OpenAI.

In the US industry, there is also analysis that OpenAI’s move to convert into a for-profit corporation is a step to maintain its advantage in the generative AI competition. Because of this, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of xAI, filed an injunction with a federal court at the end of last month requesting to halt OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit corporation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.