They train on it and self-evaluate against it. Yet those AI-driven interfaces increasingly answer questions without sending users to the content source. Google's AI Overviews makes this obvious to many businesses in the form of dwindling search traffic. Many publishers are alarmed, having built their businesses on audience reach, page views, and advertising impressions. When AI systems summarize articles instead of referring readers, the economic model fractures.
According to recent reports, the company is talking to publishers about launching a marketplace where media sites can sell their content directly to companies building AI tools. The idea is to create a central hub where media outlets can license articles, data, and other content to AI companies. At the moment, many AI models use information scraped from the web without clear agreements or compensation. This has sparked legal disputes and raised questions about ownership and how publishers should be fairly compensated.
Revenue jumped 68% year-over-year to $585 million, beating analyst estimates by a wide margin. Advertising, which makes up the bulk of its business - it now accounts for 94% of total quarterly revenue - surged 74% to $549 million, driven by new ad formats and better targeting. Daily active users hit 116 million, up 19% from last year, with U.S. growth at 7%. Average revenue per user climbed 41% to $5.04, showing stronger monetization.
