#ai-monetization

#ai-monetization

Naver reported 2025 revenue of 12.35 trillion won ($9.15 billion) and operating profit of 2.21 trillion won ($1.64 billion), up 12.1% and 11.6%, respectively, from a year earlier, during its fourth-quarter earnings call. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 10.7% to 3.20 trillion won ($2.37 billion), while operating profit increased 12.7% to 610.6 billion won ($453 million), lifting the operating margin to 19.1%.

Rival OpenAI sees it differently, and now plans to embed advertising in ChatGPT, something that CEO Sam Altman had previously said would be a "last resort". It's an indication that AI companies are still trying to balance the cost of development with the provision of service to their users.

Anthropic on Wednesday said its artificial intelligence chatbot Claude will remain ad-free, a decision that comes just weeks after the startup's rival OpenAI announced plans to begin testing advertisements within ChatGPT. In a blog post, Anthropic said that Claude users will not see ads or sponsored links near their conversations, and the chatbot's answers will not be influenced by third-party product placements. The personal nature of users' conversations with Claude would make ads feel "incongruous" and "in many cases, inappropriate," the company said.

there's a question about how ads fit into the [chatbot] model.

I'm a little bit surprised they've moved so early into that, I mean, look, ads, there's nothing wrong with ads...they funded much of the consumer internet. And if done well, they can be useful,

Amazon's e-commerce business, which was shaky for several quarters, has made a major comeback. Revenue at its core North American business rose to $106 billion from $96 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Operating income dipped slightly to $5 billion. Revenue in its cloud business, which is considered its growth engine, rose from $27 billion to $33 billion year over year.

I told Lee that artificial intelligence might be the most overfunded "free product" in modern business. We both use AI tools every day, and like most people, we don't pay a dime. That's the problem. Trillions have been spent on data centers, chips, and training models, yet the vast majority of users aren't customers. Venture-backed firms like OpenAI and Anthropic depend on free traffic and vague enterprise plans.

The theory is basically this - AI is mostly free. Huge majority of the people, more than 99 out of a hundred people use it every day for free. And there really aren't any other business models that exist, that have been successful, incredibly successful for years and years and years don't have a large number of paying customers. Either millions of people paying you know, sort of some money, maybe it's $10.

Right now, AI feels like Christmas morning every day. ChatGPT helps app designers fill wireframes with microcopy. Midjourney conjures up mood boards from thin air. Claude can debug web developers' wonky code faster than you can say "syntax error". It's intoxicating, productivity-enhancing, mostly free stuff. (See here how AI is impacting graphic design.) But let's be realistic: this golden age is as sustainable as a chocolate teapot.