For some time, as OpenAI and Anthropic kept rolling out brand-new large models and tools in a fierce contest for the developer community, OpenAI's advertising business appeared to outsiders more like an incidental, marginal endeavor. However, this situation is now undergoing a dramatic change.
Facing potential pressure that advertising revenue might fall short of targets, OpenAI has in recent months intensively launched a series of targeted new products and tools and proactively lowered its advertising pricing, in order to attract and expand its advertiser camp. The latest data show that this series of adjustments has already achieved remarkable results, helping the company successfully attract a large number of new advertisers.
Beyond adjusting its pricing strategy and product lineup, OpenAI has also launched a large-scale recruiting push in the talent market. The latest data from the employee-profile tracking platform Crustdata show that of the roughly 140 people currently on OpenAI's advertising business team, nearly half were hired in a concentrated wave between month 7 and month 9. Notably, Meta has become its biggest source of talent: the current head of advertising, Dave Dugan, previously worked at Meta for as long as 12 years — clear evidence of the company's hunger for core talent from its competitor's teams.