It was a big year for consumer AI launches from the major labs. In today's @a16z newsletter, @omooretweets and I walk through the strategies of each player: OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic, xAI, Perplexity, and Meta. We recap what did / didn't work + who surprised us 👇
@a16z @omooretweets When it comes to consumer, OpenAI started the year as the clear #1. ChatGPT was the fastest product to ever hit 100M WAUs, and has continued to grow to an estimated ~900M WAUs today. Engagement and retention are also exceptional. But Gemini has started to gain some ground 👀
DeepMind had an exceptional year - and arguably won the consumer zeitgeist. Nano Banana and Veo were HUGE launches that brought millions of consumers to Gemini. And Google continues to ship new products through @GoogleLabs (e.g. Whisk, Pomelli, Portraits, Doppl). Their biggest challenge is how to integrate their models into existing products + making them easier to find!
@a16z @omooretweets @GoogleLabs xAI is also worth calling out. The Grok app launched this January and has grown to nearly 40M MAU - an impressive ramp! I'd argue that @xai has the highest "slope" when it comes to image & video model improvements over time. I'm incredibly impressed by how fast they ship 🔥
The last player I'll mention in this thread is OpenAI. They tend to launch more products / features within the ChatGPT interface - though Sora and Atlas were two notable exceptions. Sora has been exceptional as a creative tool, but isn't yet working as a social app.
@a16z @omooretweets @GoogleLabs @xai If you want more thoughts on each of these players (+ deep dives on Anthropic, Perplexity, and Meta), check out the @a16z newsletter. And we'd love to hear from you - what were your favorite consumer launches this year? a16z.news/p/state-of-con…