Screen with browsers on Desktop: Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera-Browser and Brave
Kunlun Tech, the parent company of the niche web browser Opera, revealed plans to embed ChatGPT into Opera products.
According to CNBC, the firm announced it on Wednesday, Feb. 8, although no additional information is provided on when or whether the features will be accessible in all of Opera's offerings. The said products include desktop and mobile browsers for iOS and Android.
This news comes after Microsoft, Google, and other tech firms, including China-based Baidu and Alibaba, shared their intentions to also use or offer artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot capabilities in their products and services.
Since its debut at the end of November 2022, the popularity of ChatGPT has skyrocketed. ChatGPT is an app created by OpenAI with backing from Microsoft.
Opera's Market Performance
As their most powerful AI enters their systems, Google and Microsoft have transformed the web search market. Google uses the Bard AI to construct its search engine, whereas Microsoft uses Bing and Edge.
Based on Statcounter statistics from the month of January, Google's Chrome browser has a 65.4% global market share, while Microsoft's Edge browser has a 4.5% share. Opera has a 2.4% global browser market share, placing it in the sixth spot.
The Norwegian company Opera has 321 million average monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2022, thanks to the popularity of its gaming-focused browser. The firm attributed the increase in sales to the success of its gaming browser sector, which contributed to a 28% boost in revenue year-over-year, bringing quarterly revenue to $85.3 million.
Kunlun Tech, headquartered in Beijing, China, is a publicly traded corporation with shares trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The corporation said in December 2022 that all of its AI-created media, including music and photos, will be released under an open-source license.
Kunlun Tech's stock price has increased by more than 40% for the year. A little more than 10% of Opera's Nasdaq-traded stock price has improved during the last quarter.
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The Rise of New Competitors
In a race to get to market, several businesses have announced their own ChatGPT-like tools.
The Baidu chatbot, developed in-house by the Chinese internet giant, is expected to be ready for public release in March, according to statements made this week. This AI chatbot project is named Wenxin Yiyan, also known as Ernie Bot in English.
Alibaba has also revealed that it is developing an alternative to ChatGPT, but no release date has been given.
It is unclear how these additional AI functions would stack up against ChatGPT's functionality.
Statcounter reports that Google dominates the mobile search industry with a staggering 96.5% share, with Baidu trailing far behind with only a 0.7% share.
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