Snap Puts 10 Billion AI Chatbot Messages to Use Refining Its Ad Business
Snap Inc., the maker of the Snapchat app, is testing ways that its popular new artificial intelligence chatbot can boost the company's advertising business.
More than 150 million people — about 20% of Snapchat's monthly users — have sent 10 billion messages to the chatbot, called My AI, since it was introduced at the end of February, the company said Thursday. Users have asked about everything from skin care recommendations to details about the latest sports car.
My AI, which calls itself the “virtual friend within Snapchat,” has already helped Snap diversify its revenue stream in a way many social media companies have struggled to do: through paid subscriptions. After the feature was first released to the app's paying users, Snap's total subscriber numbers rose to more than 3 million in April.
In what could be an even more lucrative boost to revenue, Snap is using what it has learned from the interactions with the chatbot to refine its advertising business, which provides the majority of the company's revenue. Snap's advertising has struggled, and the company reported its first-ever decline in sales in the first quarter. My AI was opened to all Snapchat users two months ago, and the influx of messages may help Snap improve the way it personalizes ads.
Snap and its peers are still recovering from a change that Apple Inc. made to its privacy policies two years ago that drastically decreased the ability to track ads and target specific audiences on apps. That has forced social media companies to come up with new ways to learn about individual users' interests based on their in-app activity.
Snapchat's central feature is its person-to-person private messaging, giving the company little insight into a user's activities. Instead,
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