OpenAI, which once prided itself on maintaining a pure conversation experience, has finally entered the advertising battlefield. According to insiders, this artificial intelligence giant has finalized a list of dozens of initial advertisers and plans to launch its chatbot advertising service in early February. This marks not only a significant shift in OpenAI's business model, but also signals that the AI industry has officially entered the second half of the "traffic monetization" competition.

OpenAI's advertising strategy is bold and unique. Unlike the traditional "pay-per-click" model used by Google or Amazon, OpenAI will initially adopt a "pay-per-impression" model. During the current beta testing phase, the first advertisers are required to commit to a placement budget of less than $10 million. Although the platform has not yet launched a self-service advertising system similar to traditional search engines, the relevant technical support is being rapidly developed, aiming to achieve more convenient automated placements upon official launch.

OpenAI's urgent efforts to build an advertising system are driven by strong strategic motives. On one hand, the company is currently in a critical period of raising $10 billion, and a rapidly growing revenue capability is undoubtedly the best "investment catalyst." On the other hand, ChatGPT's massive 900 million weekly active users and highly personalized conversation features are themselves a tempting "traffic goldmine" for advertisers. For example, when you search for a spaghetti recipe in ChatGPT, a specific sauce brand may appear precisely on the screen.

To ease potential backlash, OpenAI is being particularly cautious in its implementation. Ads will first be targeted at free users in the United States, as well as users of the recently launched low-cost paid version priced at $8 per month. This caution stems from concerns about user experience—after all, forcibly inserting ads into a chatbot designed for deep conversations can easily be seen as intrusive.

Although advertisers have shown great enthusiasm for this new channel, OpenAI still maintains an air of mystery. According to feedback from leaders of five major advertising agencies, they have actively extended olive branches to seek collaboration, but none have received formal responses from OpenAI. As for specific pricing details and when resources will be fully opened, OpenAI remains silent, keeping the market in suspense.