Just three months after the official launch of its ChatGPT advertising business, AI giant OpenAI has made a disruptive adjustment to its long-term commercialization strategy. The company is shifting its advertising business focus from serving large international brands with substantial budgets to attracting small and local businesses.

Earlier this year, when OpenAI first introduced its advertising business, it took a high-barrier "VIP" approach, only opening up to top-tier brands like Ford Motor Company, and requiring advertisers to pay a minimum prepayment of $200,000 for ad placements. However, this high financial barrier has now been officially announced to be removed.

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Standardized Model Compared to Traditional Giants

The complete removal of the barrier means that both multinational corporations and local laundries or car washes can directly participate in ChatGPT's advertising placements through an self-service backend. This shift marks OpenAI's abandonment of its early brand exposure approach, and instead fully embracing an internet performance advertising model similar to Meta and Google.

To further attract small and medium-sized merchants who focus on return on investment (ROI), OpenAI has also launched a new "conversion-oriented advertising" test this week. This new form of advertising aims to guide users to perform actual actions such as placing orders, booking services, or filling out forms, bringing more direct business conversions for merchants.

Pay-Per-Use Drives Scalable Revenue

Differing from the previous rigid billing model based solely on impressions (CPM), the introduction of conversion-oriented advertising will significantly improve the efficiency for small and medium-sized merchants in acquiring real customers. Merchants no longer need to pay for intangible exposure, but can precisely control their advertising budget based on real customer acquisition results.

Industry analysts point out that this move by OpenAI aims to achieve scalable growth in advertising revenue through a large group of small and medium-sized merchants. After the technology boom period, supporting massive computing costs through more down-to-earth commercial monetization methods has become an inevitable choice for the sustainable development of large model companies.