ChatGPT traffic for publishers: Growth is present, but the overall share remains small.

Current data shows that while the referrals generated by ChatGPT to news portals are increasing significantly, they still play a negligible role in relation to the total traffic. 

This development is particularly interesting for the Swiss market – where established media brands such as 20 Minuten, Blick or NZZ are traditionally strong and attract the majority of online traffic – as a shift towards AI-based search and recommendation services could emerge in the future.

Even on our website, the share of traffic from ChatGPT is just 0.6%:

Key insights

1. Strong growth, small share
   According to Similarweb, the number of monthly visits from ChatGPT to 14 leading international news portals increased from approximately 435.000 (August) to 3,5 million (January). However, this traffic still represents less than 0,1% of the total visits to the publishers surveyed.
2. Who benefits the most?
   • The New York Post ChatGPT recorded 760.000 visits in January – this represents 0,5% of its total 143,5 million monthly page views.
   • The Guardian and Forbes ChatGPT also received high visitor numbers (730.000 and 560.000 respectively).
3. Partnerships with OpenAI
   Several of the publishers studied cooperate directly with OpenAI, which could lead to their content being cited more frequently by ChatGPT. Swiss media companies that enter into similar partnerships could also benefit from additional references in the long term.
4. Comparison with Perplexity
   • The AI ​​service Perplexity This delivers between 450.000 and 850.000 visits per month to these 14 publishers – however, without a consistent increase from month to month.
   • In January, Perplexity The New York Times (146.000) CNN (139.000) and India Times (117.000) at the front.
5. Langfristige Entwicklung
   • The growing interest in ChatGPT and Perplexity opens up opportunities for publishers to gain additional traffic.
   • However, it remains questionable whether AI-based search and recommendation services will be able to take significant market share away from traditional search engines in the long term.
   • For publishers in Switzerland, the most relevant question is how much user behavior is changing in this country and whether potential new visitor flows from AI sources actually reduce the weight of traditional search engine queries.

Outlook for the Swiss market

• Media diversitySwitzerland has a well-developed media landscape with many regional and national offerings. Whether AI tools like ChatGPT will generate more traffic here in the future depends, among other things, on how quickly users adapt to AI-based search applications.
• Relevance for publishersEven though AI-driven referrals currently only make up a minimal share, this trend is likely to intensify. Publishers should find ways early on to specifically prepare their content for such AI services.
• Expectations for the futureAs OpenAI and other providers continuously develop their models, the quality of the answers could increase – and with it, the number of linked sources. This presents opportunities to reach new audiences.

MIK Group: Your partner for digital innovation in Switzerland

Within the MIK Group We focus on holistic concepts that also incorporate digital trends. Although the concrete impact of AI-powered traffic on publishing and media companies is still in its early stages, Swiss companies and publishers should keep a close eye on these developments. With our expertise in project development and digital networking, we support you in developing future-proof strategies and benefiting from new technologies.

ConclusionChatGPT and similar AI systems may currently only account for a small share of total traffic for publishers, but their rapid growth shows that AI referrals could become an increasingly important traffic source. Especially in Switzerland, where digital innovation and media diversity converge, it's worth taking a closer look at AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity – the right partnerships and future-oriented content creation could soon be crucial for reaching new readerships.