ChatGPT: Not just a dominant design but an ecosystem

In the world of tech, a dominant design isn’t just a strong product—it’s an ecosystem. Its value grows with every new user and every new complementary tool created. That’s exactly what we've seen with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, set to hit 700 million weekly active users, up 4X from 2024, faster than many mainstream platforms.

This massive installed base means more plugins, more integrations, more enterprise workflows—network externalities in full swing. And with continuous user feedback, OpenAI is mastering learning effects—making ChatGPT smarter, faster, and more cost-effective.

Despite the glitchy launch of ChatGPT5, ChatGPT continues to add new users every day. In response to the latest backlash from ChatGPT customers on its latest release, Sam Altman announced a focus on creating “a cooler social experience with AI”.

Meanwhile, competitors like Perplexity AI are making bold moves. From April 2024 to March 2025, its monthly traffic rocketed from a few million to over 110 million visits, while processing nearly 800 million queries. What’s fueling this? Perplexity's value proposition lies in powering its search with a citation-backed answer engine that flexibly uses models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others, adding transparency and precision to its responses.

Perplexity is also executing strategic market plays: launching a built-in AI browser (Comet), a Shopping Hub, and a mobile assistant—all complementary goods aimed at locking in users and building stickiness.

Other contenders like Claude and NotebookLM target more niche, enterprise-oriented needs (legal, document summarization, knowledge management). Their adoption may be slower, but they're carving out focused use-cases.

Why this matters for leaders:

• If you're a CEO, CTO, or product leader, understanding network effects is critical. Once a design wins, switching becomes exponentially costlier for users.

• Strategic investment in complementary goods—like APIs, plugins, browsing features—is a powerful lever to lock in ecosystem dominance.

• Yet, competition isn’t over. Perplexity shows how smart positioning, transparency, and functional breadth can drive fast growth—even without presumptive scale.