• Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    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
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      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.