This year, the domestic user landscape for generative artificial intelligence (AI) services is shifting. OpenAI's ChatGPT, which ranked No. 1 in users after explosive growth last year, has seen its increase slow in the second half, while Anthropic's Claude is rapidly adding users and raising its profile. By contrast, domestic AI services saw a sharp decline in users.
According to app analytics platform Mobile Index on the 4th, as of last month, monthly active users (MAU) for generative AI in Korea were highest for ChatGPT at 16.45 million. It was followed by Claude with 1.42 million and SKT's adot with 1.2 million, both in the 1 million range, with ▲ Perplexity at 610,000 ▲ Grok at 510,000 ▲ Wrtn at 230,000 ▲ Google Gemini at 150,000. The figures are based on mobile apps combining Android and iOS users, and do not include PC usage.
Claude saw the biggest MAU increase among AI services this year. Claude, which had only about 150,000 MAU at the start of the year, surpassed 600,000 in March and 1 million in April, adding an average of about 200,000 MAU each month. In the case of ChatGPT, after surpassing 10 million MAU in April last year, it maintained steady growth and hit a record high of 16.64 million in June, but last month it fell by about 200,000 from the previous month, slightly slowing its growth.
Most other generative AI services saw declines in users. Perplexity, which featured actor Lee Jung-jae as its advertising model last year, lost about 200,000 MAU over the year, and Grok, Elon Musk's AI service, also shed about 200,000 MAU from early this year. The same is true for domestic AI services. Adot, the No. 1 domestic AI service, saw its MAU fall by 460,000 over the year, and Wrtn, which drew attention by featuring singer G-Dragon as its advertising model, plunged by 850,000 MAU over the same period.
As a result, analysts say Korea's generative AI market is being reshaped into a two-strong structure centered on ChatGPT and Claude. ChatGPT, which opened the global generative AI market, is maintaining its dominance in Korea thanks to a lock-in effect, while its growth has entered a mature phase. Claude is quickly absorbing users, especially office workers and developers, on the back of strong language processing, coding, and reasoning capabilities. Industry officials said the two-strong system is solidifying as users who had been using multiple generative AI services are consolidating their usage around ChatGPT and Claude.
Other AI services have not shown differentiated competitiveness that surpasses ChatGPT and Claude, leading to continued user churn. Perplexity and Grok emphasized search-style AI and social integration features, respectively, but failed to demonstrate clear differentiation and saw users decline. Domestic AI services also appear unable to overcome the technology and ecosystem gap with global platforms. Adot faces limits with its focus on AI calling, and Wrtn is struggling to secure repeat visits after early buzz.
An AI industry official said, "Even just last year, competition among AI services other than ChatGPT was fierce, but this year Claude has grown rapidly, effectively creating a two-strong landscape with ChatGPT," and added, "Claude's growth in the domestic market shows that users value performance and on-the-job utility more than aggressive marketing or differentiation strategies."