Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its mark on the consumer mobile app market, and Character.AI, an a16z-supported startup, has solidly entered the scene with over 1.7 million installations in its first week. This success comes on the heels of OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile app, which earlier made headlines with over half a million downloads within the first six days of its launch.
Earlier this year, Character.AI secured a hefty $150 million in Series A funding, resulting in a billion-dollar valuation. The startup offers a unique twist on AI integration, enabling users to create and interact with AI companions with distinct personalities, setting it apart from other AI character generators in today’s app market.
Character.AI’s success is largely attributed to its founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, prominent AI experts who previously spearheaded a team of researchers at Google. They were instrumental in creating LaMDA, an influential language model that enhances conversational AI experiences. Disappointed with Google’s hesitance to integrate AI chatbots into their offerings, the duo left Google in late 2021 and founded Character Technologies, now home to Character.AI.
Character.AI’s app launched globally on iOS and Android platforms on May 23, making a noteworthy impact particularly on Google Play. In the initial 48 hours, the app had over 700,000 Android installs, surpassing popular entertainment apps such as Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video. The trend of installations has maintained momentum, with large Android markets including Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil, and the U.S. being prominent contributors.
The successful mobile launch was fueled by the prior popularity of the Character.AI web experience, which saw a staggering 200 million visits per month. Additionally, user engagement was substantial, with users spending an average of 29 minutes per visit — a figure that trumps ChatGPT by 300%.
Character.AI reports that user engagement surges after the initial interaction, with average platform usage time increasing to over two hours following the first message to a character. To date, over 10 million custom AI characters have been created by users.
Despite being a small team of 30, Character.AI has been active this month, launching its premium service, c.ai+, and entering a strategic partnership with Google Cloud for building and training its AI models. The startup aims to use Google Cloud’s Tensor Processor Units to train large language models (LLMs) more effectively.
While skepticism often surrounds reported download numbers of new apps, independent analytics from data.ai suggest that Character.AI’s figures are likely accurate. This affirms that there is a considerable consumer demand for Character.AI.
While OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to hold a solid position post-launch, Character.AI’s demand has seen a slight decline post-launch. However, Character.AI maintains that this initial success was not driven by significant marketing expenditure. The company asserts that 99% of its downloads were organic, signifying a strong consumer interest in their offering.
