• Dave@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    11 hours ago

    Thanks for the numbers, you were saying the subscriber percentage was embarrassing so I was curious about that rather than their fairly infamous losses.

    You’ve said OpenAI have about half the subscriber percentage of Dropbox, but if Dropbox is that profitable then that seems like they are doing particularly well and perhaps that subscriber percent is above average?

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      Peope don’t usually compare OpenAI with Dropbox, but Dropbox isn’t particularly great with the free-to-paid converion rating. 2.6% is pretty bad, but they STILL manage to make money because what they do is pretty cheap on a per-user basis. They just host data, and most of that data isn’t really used much. Also, I don’t know if Dropbox is “that” profitable. All I could find is that their revenue exceeds their operating costs, but I don’t know if that covers R&D or marketting, which they probably spend a LOT of money on.

      Comparisons with YouTube and Spotify get thrown around a lot more, which convert around 5% and a whoppingly insane 36%, compared to OpenAI’s measly 1%. And both YouTube and Spotify actually make a LOT of money on their “free” users, via ads. OpenAI has no monetisation beyond subscribers, and they’re very bad at getting people to pay for their stuff.

      • Dave@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Yeah that’s a fair point. I don’t think Dropbox does ads but the others I mentioned and the ones you mentioned all show/play ads for the free tier.

        I guess OpenAI will be pretty keen to get ads into their free tier too, once they run out of investors’ money.