a16z-backed chatbot startup Character.AI tops 1.7 million installs in first week

Image credit: Character.AI

Demand for AI through consumer mobile apps is on the rise, with market leader OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile app surpassing 500,000 downloads in its first six days. Another AI app is now touting its own successful release, the a16z-powered Character.AI app, which he has gained over 1.7 million new installs in less than a week on the market. claims. The AI ​​app maker announced a massive $150 million in Series A funding earlier this year, valuing the business at $1 billion, and is launching a customizable AI companion with a distinct personality. and offers the ability for users to create their own characters.

While there are many of these AI character generators available in app stores today, interest in Character.AI has a lot to do with its founder. The Palo Alto-based startup was founded by AI experts Noam Shazier and Daniel de Freitas. They previously led a team of researchers at Google who built his LaMDA (Language Model for Conversational Applications), a language model that helps enhance conversational AI experiences.

At Google, Wall said the founders were frustrated by the company’s reluctance to roll out AI chatbots to other researchers and the general public, including integration with other Google products such as the Assistant. Reported by The Street Journal. The duo, who believed that AI would revolutionize search and other areas, eventually ended up in late 2021 despite pleas from CEO Sundar Pichai to stay and continue working at LaMDA. Decided to leave Google. That same November, Shazeer and De Freitas founded Character Technologies, now home to Character.AI.

The mobile version of the AI ​​chatbot platform was released globally for iOS and Android users on May 23rd, with particularly strong results on Google Play. Within the first 48 hours, the app had over 700,000 installs on Android, surpassing top entertainment apps such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video. That trend has continued for days after launch, the company confirmed to TechCrunch, thanks to his massive Android market installs in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Brazil. The US is also a major market for his Android downloads, according to the company.

Image credit: Character.AI

Interest in mobile apps was also fueled by the popularity of the web experience that preceded it. According to Character.AI, prior to the app’s release, the Character.AI web app had surpassed 200 million monthly visits, with users spending an average of 29 minutes per visit on his Character.AI. The company says it outperforms his ChatGPT by 300%.

Additionally, Character.AI reports that users are instantly hooked after first use. For example, the company noted earlier this month that when a user sends a character their first message, engagement rates jump to his average time on the platform over two hours. To date, users have created more than 10 million custom AI characters, the company added.

The team is still only 30 people, but this month has been particularly busy with the launch of the premium service c.ai+. It offers similar benefits as ChatGPT Plus, such as faster response times, access during peak usage, and early access. for new features. We also announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud for building and training AI models. The deal will allow startups to use Google Cloud’s Tensor Processor Units to train and infer large-scale language models (LLMs) faster and more efficiently.

Some startups have falsified reported download numbers to sound better than they actually are, but Character.AI’s numbers are likely accurate. We asked third-party app intelligence provider data.ai to compare his Character.AI numbers to our own estimates, and data.ai actually had more app downloads. returned a number indicating (The app is so new that third-party estimates may not be accurate at this time. But if anything, these third-party metrics support early consumer demand.) are available.)

However, while ChatGPT has shown staying power since its launch (it is still #3 on the US Top Free Apps chart), demand for Character.AI seems to have declined slightly since its launch. As of this writing, this iOS app ranks him #13 in the US App Store’s entertainment category. On iOS in the US, the app was #4 overall for his first two days, but has since slipped to #89 overall. On Android in the US, he reached No. 5 on May 27, but as of today he has fallen to No. 27, data.ai said.

When asked if Character.AI is making huge changes in marketing dollars to generate initial installs, the company insisted it wasn’t. The app launched without a dedicated marketing budget, and 99% of downloads were organic, the startup said.