OpenAI just announced a big strategic flip-flop: it’s rolling back its in-app purchasing plans.
Last year, OpenAI announced it was transforming ChatGPT into a shopping destination. This meant users would be able to discover and purchase products in-app.
This was followed by partnership announcements with Etsy and Shopify, signalling a bold new direction for the tech titan.
At the time, CEO Sam Altman shared his monetisation plans for the launch, noting that while the company wouldn’t take money to change placement, it could charge a 2% affiliate fee.
However, those plans came crashing down last week, when the company shifted gears and said that instead, it would move this to third-party apps linked to ChatGPT to process transactions.
According to a report by The Information, a key driver behind this was that the integration just wasn’t working.
Users were still using ChatGPT as they always had: as a place to research, not a place to purchase. Meanwhile, merchants were simply missing.
At an investor conference last week, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein made an admission: of the millions of merchants using the platform, only around a dozen were using AI to sell.
“The only reason it's gated is we're just waiting for the agent applications to continue to open the doors,” said Finkelstein.
Alongside this was a wave of complex technical issues, including the mammoth task of ensuring that product information from merchants was accurate and seamlessly up-to-date.
Then, there were the regulatory and compliance factors, stretching from tax to fraud prevention.
For the AI giant, it appears that this was just a step too far, too soon.
What does this mean for affiliates?
That remains to be seen, but online travel stocks are up.
Stay tuned for industry input on Hello Partner.
