Generative AI apps have already raked in nearly US$2bil this year
This year, people have nearly doubled their spending on generative AI apps when it comes to both time and money, proving the rise of this technology's popularity.
In the first half of 2025, GenAI apps pulled in roughly US$1.9bil (RM8bil) of in-app purchase revenue versus US$932mil (RM3.9bil) in the second half of 2024, according to a new report from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which looks at data from Apple's App Store and Google Play. The exponential growth in hours users spent on generative AI apps is notable as well. Users spent a whopping 15.6 billion hours using these apps in the first half of 2025 – which is about an 84 percent jump from the second half of 2024.
Generative AI apps were downloaded 1.7 billion times in the first half of 2025, a jump of 67 percent since the second half of 2024. ChatGPT dominated the global downloads, followed by DeepSeek and Google Gemini, although Gemini overtook DeepSeek in the US market.
Usage patterns of these apps are starting to look similar to those of search engines. Users averaged 7.8 sessions per day on ChatGPT in the first half of 2025, which just exceed the 7.4 average daily sessions users spent using top search engine and browser apps. They still spent, on average, more time daily on search engine apps, but that difference is narrowing.
'The potential for ChatGPT to disrupt traditional search is already apparent. Over the past few years, ChatGPT's engagement metrics have soared, now rivalling those of leading search engine and browser applications,' the report reads.
And when it comes to the average number of days certain apps are used on a monthly basis, Google still reigns supreme. But the report notes ChatGPT was about on par with X and Reddit in terms of days used in June 2025.
'It's notable that ChatGPT (and AI assistants more broadly) has yet to fully replace search engines like Google when it comes to consistent usage,' the report states.
What are users spending all that time doing with generative AI?
According to Sensor Tower's report, 8.3 percent of ChatGPT prompts in the second quarter of 2025 involved tech support and troubleshooting; followed by writing and editing, which accounted for about 7.7 percent of prompts. Education and teaching, coding help, and health and wellness rounded out the top five.
'As ChatGPT has expanded its user base, its use cases have become more diverse,' the report states. – Inc./Tribune News Service
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
28 minutes ago
- The Star
Books, ephemera and taste: How fashion shops are also selling culture
To run a buzzy menswear shop in New York these days, it helps to have a few things. Great clothes, of course. Tasteful decor (Noguchi lanterns and ceramic vessels are de rigueur). Friendly, stylish salespeople certainly don't hurt. Increasingly, a stack of books is also a must. Preferably of rare and elusive provenance, concerning matters of art and design, and, in many cases, provided by a neatly dressed bespectacled man named Geoff Snack. 'Whenever I put books in a retail store, it's like: How can this help people?' Snack, 40, said one afternoon this spring. 'How can this contribute to the understanding of what this shop is about, what the brands are about?' He was flipping through a pile of books he had sourced for the clothing store and coffeeshop Colbo on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Stacked on a small table beside a rack of earth-toned clothing were ones featuring Cindy Sherman's shape-shifting photos, an Ellsworth Kelly catalogue and a volume dedicated to the concept of sisterhood. Read more: This menswear savant gets paid to travel the world and buy cool vintage pieces 'It's like the cafe and music we play,' said Eldar Hadad, one of Colbo's owners, as she sold sugar-dusted morning buns. 'It invites you to linger when you have books – you can skim through and you're welcome to stay, read, have a coffee.' Lingering, she noted, is a strategy to help encourage sales. It also aligns with a recent retail trend of conjuring an intimate atmosphere, as if customers weren't shopping at a store but rather hanging out at a chic friend's apartment. Snack's modest literary empire extends to a smattering of popular stores in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, most of which specialise in menswear: J Crew's store on Bond Street, Noah in NoLIta and Ven Space in Carroll Gardens are among them. In Canada, where he grew up and went to school, he has provided books to pop-up shops by the brand Stone Island and the popular boutique Better Gift Shop. 'I think books and unique items help tell the same stories that inspire our clothing,' said Brendon Babenzien, the men's creative director at J Crew and a founder of Noah. 'Fashion and the choices we make around it are deeply tied to our personal interests, and the items we select reflect those same interests. In that way, they complement each other perfectly.' Prices for the books range from US$45 to US$600 (approximately RM190 to RM2,537) for a single volume and are often sold to stores on a consignment basis. Snack calls himself a 'book and paper dealer' because he also traffics in printed ephemera. A drink ticket from Studio 54, a business card advertising a 1986 pop-up shop by Keith Haring and an artist-designed menu from the shuttered SoHo restaurant Chanterelle are some of the things he has listed on his website, Wrong Answer. Geoff Snack provides a curated collection of books, preferably of rare and elusive provenance, to fashion boutiques. Photo: The New York Times 'I really love seeing the stuff that I sell out in the world,' Snack said. 'For me, it's really fun to be a part of the visual landscape of the city.' Peddling books to trendy stores may be a niche gig, but it's not exactly unusual. The fashion and literary worlds have long had a symbiotic relationship, each borrowing liberally from the other. Booksellers at Left Bank Books, for instance, have supplied art and design volumes to vintage clothing shop Sorbara's in Williamsburg, which also has framed posters from Snack hanging on its walls. Des Pair Books in Los Angeles has curated books for Frontier, a store in West Hollywood, California, and for clothing brand Buck Mason's outpost in Nashville, Tennessee. 'Books in stores are, essentially, cultural accessories,' said Judith Thurman, a New Yorker writer who has covered fashion for the magazine, which this year introduced merchandise with J Crew. 'They're consumed like that. You would buy a cool necklace and a book with a cool cover.' Not to mention, the fashion set has long had an interest in what's known as 'world building'. Read more: These brothers are Malaysian fashion's next act – guess who their father is Books – especially rare ones concerning highbrow matter, like those Snack sells – can be tools for telegraphing taste or authenticity. Stores that sell contemporary clothing alongside vintage books and printed ephemera, said W David Marx, the author of Status And Culture: How Our Desire For Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion and Constant Change , are 'kind of associating these new products that you make with this heritage'. Snack caught the collecting bug as a child in Peterborough, Ontario, where he frequented flea markets with his father, who liked to hunt down Coca-Cola memorabilia. Snack preferred to forage for video games, hockey trading cards and, later, magazines and punk albums. He recalled cutting out pictures from Wallpaper magazine and hanging them in his bedroom as a teen. He sought out art and design books in Toronto, where he studied English at the University of Toronto, and visited local book shops whenever he travelled. At some point he crossed the fine line from casual enthusiast to collector. 'I was never going to own a Warhol,' he said. 'But I could get a Warhol book, or a poster from one of his early shows. It was just getting myself into closer proximity with the culture I love.' At first he wasn't interested in selling anything from his collection. But a book dealer he met in Boston hatched the idea. 'She said to me: 'Every collector becomes a dealer. It's inevitable,'' he remembered. 'And now that I look back on it, she was totally right.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
New Straits Times
28 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Dinesh Ratnam returns to iQIYI as senior MD for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese streaming platform iQIYI has named Dinesh Ratnam as senior managing director for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. In his new role, Dinesh will oversee operations in the three markets, focusing on growing subscribers, expanding local content, building partnerships and boosting audience engagement. This is a return to iQIYI for Dinesh, who previously helped launch and grow its presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei. He later became senior director for international business before leaving in 2023 to head Warner Music Group's Malaysia and Singapore operations. Dinesh said it feels like a true homecoming, noting iQIYI's significant growth over the years with its strong catalogue of Chinese dramas, Korean series, anime and local productions. "I'm excited to build on this momentum and tap into the immense creative potential of Southeast Asia. "The demand for Asian content is at an all-time high, and we are well-positioned to deliver compelling stories that connect deeply with our audiences," he said in a statement. During his time at Warner Music, Dinesh led the label through a period of commercial success, with multiple hit releases, cross-border chart performance and success, and industry awards for their artists. Under his leadership, the company strengthened its role as a trusted partner for brands looking to integrate music into culturally relevant storytelling. With over 15 years of experience across the streaming, content, and technology sectors, he brings a unique blend of regional market expertise and global strategic insight. He has held senior roles at iflix, Catcha Group and started his career in investment banking with J.P. Morgan in London and San Francisco, advising on over US$25 billion worth of transactions in the technology, media and telecommunications space.
New Straits Times
28 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Saudi Aramco profit drops as it flags cost cuts, divestments
DUBAI: Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco reported a 22 per cent drop in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, and the world's top oil exporter said it was cutting costs and looking to divest assets as crude prices drop and its debt mounts. The firm's generous dividends, a key source of funding for ambitious plans to cut the kingdom's reliance on oil, will be about a third lower this year. Aramco reported its 10th decline in quarterly net profit to US$22.7 billion in the quarter through June, from US$29.1 billion a year earlier. Aramco's shares were up 0.3 per cent at 23.98 riyals. They have dropped about 14.5 per cent this year, trailing industry peers. Adjusted net income fell 13.7 per cent to US$24.5 billion, above a company-provided median analyst estimate of US$23.7 billion. "What we're looking at across the portfolio is to unlock capital that is currently locked into low - relatively low-return (assets) ... invest it in our core investment, which are high return," CFO Ziad Al-Murshed told reporters. He declined to name the assets, but said: "it is your typical low-return that is tied in things like infrastructure." Reuters reported last month that Aramco was close to a deal to raise US$10 billion from a group led by BlackRock, and is considering selling up to five gas-powered power plants to raise up to US$4 billion. Total borrowing rose to US$92.9 billion at June 30 from US$74.4 a year prior. Gearing, a measure of indebtedness, rose to 6.5 per cent from minus 0.3 per cent a year earlier and 5.3 per cent the previous quarter. Aramco is looking at different geographies, currencies and instruments for debt issuance, Al-Murshed said. The company, long a reliable source of revenue for the Saudi state, confirmed a previously outlined US$21.3 billion in total dividends for the second quarter, about US$200 million of which is performance-linked dividends. DIVIDENDS SINK Aramco in March outlined total dividends of US$85.4 billion for 2025 - a 31 per cent drop from more than US$124 billion the previous year. The performance-linked component is set to plunge 98 per cent from 2024 to US$900 million as free cash flow dwindles. Free cash flow dropped nearly a fifth year-on-year in the second quarter to US$15.2 billion. For the Saudi government, which owns 81.5 per cent of Aramco shares directly and another 16 per cent through its sovereign wealth fund PIF, dividends are a critical source of income, particularly as it invests to diversify the economy away from oil. Oil generated 62 per cent of the government's revenue last year, and the International Monetary fund estimates the kingdom needs oil prices at more than US$90 a barrel to balance its 2025 budget. Aramco's average realised crude oil price was US$66.7 a barrel in the quarter, down from US$76.3 in the first quarter and US$85.7 in the second quarter of 2024. "We've pencilled in for Saudi Arabia to run a budget deficit of 5.0 per cent of GDP this year," said James Swanston, senior economist at Capital Economics, adding the government would likely overshoot its annual borrowing plan. That would be more than double the 2.3 per cent deficit, or about US$27 billion, the kingdom projected in November for the 2025 budget.
