ChatGPT’s Rising Dominance Sparks Meta’s Anxiety Over Digital Attention Economy
ChatGPT has evolved from a productivity tool into the internet's most frequented digital space, amassing over 800 million registered users with 125 million daily active participants. Average session durations now rival peak social media engagement at 14 minutes—a metric Meta hasn't seen since the heyday of casual gaming frenzies like Candy Crush.
Meta perceives OpenAI as its foremost competitor not in technical specifications, but in the battle for user attention—the Core commodity fueling its $160 billion advertising empire. Every minute spent conversing with AI represents lost opportunity cost: no ad impressions, no social interactions, no data harvesting for Meta's recommendation algorithms.
The interface's addictive qualities mirror social feeds through dialogue rather than drama. Users dispatch 2.5 billion daily prompts—micro-interactions replacing traditional social media behaviors. Similarweb data reveals 2 billion May 2025 visits where users seek validation and exchange ideas privately, devoid of commercial interruptions.
