"Yes! Not ChatGPT or Gemini or Threads or any of the other usual suspects. Dave's Hot Chicken now rules over the App Store, where its slack-beaked, bug-eyed mascot icon expresses appropriate surprise at its ascent. How did it do it? How did it break the grasp of OpenAI's golem TikTok? With something people love even more than large language models: free food."
"If you're wondering what Drake has to do with any of this, he invested in the fast casual restaurant chain in 2021, and presumably made a mint when the company sold a majority stake to private equity firm Roark Capital for a reported $1 billion. For the third consecutive year, the company gave away one (1) free slider to anyone who has downloaded the app in honor of Drake's birthday."
OpenAI's Sora app led the iOS App Store charts after its September 30 launch due to AI video generation features and an initially loose approach to copyright. Dave's Hot Chicken ran a free-slider promotion for Drake's birthday, leveraging celebrity association and free food to drive downloads. The chain typically gains 20,000–25,000 weekly loyalty sign-ups; the promotion generated 343,531 new accounts in one day, a more than 10 percent increase in membership. The surge pushed Dave's to the App Store top spot, ending Sora's multi-week reign even while Sora remained invite-only.
Read at WIRED
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