Actualidad · IA
We like to think people shop around — try a few chatbots, weigh up the options, then choose. In reality, it’s more human than that: most stick with the first one that works well enough.
The elephant in the room: everyone uses ChatGPT
Several recent analyses of AI chatbot usage in the US converge on the same picture. Market share, ranked from largest to smallest:
| Platform | Estimated share |
|---|---|
| 1 ChatGPT | ~59–61% |
| 2 Microsoft Copilot | ~14% |
| 3 Gemini (Google) | ~13–13.5% |
| 4 Perplexity | ~6–6.4% |
| 5 Claude | ~3–3.2% |
Source: user panel and web traffic analyses. Exact figures vary by methodology, but the pattern is consistent across sources.
The exact numbers vary by source — user panels, web traffic, apps — but the pattern is clear: ChatGPT is miles ahead of the rest.
People trust ChatGPT because they use it more. They use it more because they trust it. That’s a textbook network effect — and it’s brutally hard to break.
What exactly is “First Mover Advantage”?
In business strategy, first mover advantage is what happens when a company moves early in a new space — and locks in three things before everyone else.
The first is occupying the user’s mind — becoming the generic name for the category. Hoover for vacuuming. Sellotape for sticky tape. Rightmove as the default starting point for “let’s look for a house” in the UK. The second is creating and fixing the rules of the game: whoever arrives first usually defines how people compare options, which metrics matter, and how the category gets talked about in the press, in the industry, and in business schools. The third is building momentum that’s hard to undo: more users generate more data, which improves the product, which generates more word of mouth, which brings more users. In generative AI, this cycle accelerates every day.
In UK business schools, two cases are often used to illustrate this mechanism with precision:
Hoover as the pioneer of a household appliance category. Not the first vacuum cleaner, but the brand that became the verb — and set the mental shortcut for the whole category, regardless of what’s actually in the cupboard.
Rightmove in the UK online property market. It arrived early, built critical mass of listings and users, and became the default platform for house hunting — even with strong competitors following behind.
In many markets, the company that moves early and executes well doesn’t just sell more — it defines what winning looks like.
The awkward question: who is the “first mover” in your category?
Put the two pieces together — a model with a brutal first-mover advantage and a network effect that reinforces that position every day — and the question stops being theoretical and becomes very practical.
When someone asks about your category in ChatGPT, does your brand appear in the answer — or does it not exist in that conversation? In AI search there’s no second page of results: there’s one main answer and perhaps two or three alternatives. You’re either in it or you aren’t.
That’s where a concept that will define marketing for years to come enters the picture: AI Share of Voice. Who shows up, how often, and with what authority when the models answer questions in your niche.
The next part of this series documents what ChatGPT looks like as a “first mover” in your customers’ minds — and what it takes, in practice, to become the first mover in your category within ChatGPT by growing your Share of Voice.