AI chatbots from companies like OpenAI and Google are significantly reducing the web traffic to publishers' sites, with data showing a 96% drop compared to traditional search engines. TollBit's analysis on 160 publishers during Q4 2024 revealed bots scraped sites around two million times, which means zero ad revenue generated for publishers. Despite chatbots summarizing information and linking to sources, users rarely click through. Publishers like Chegg have filed lawsuits against Google for financial harm caused by AI features, indicating deeper repercussions for media firms.
We are seeing an influx of bots that are hammering these sites every time a user asks a question," explained Toshit Panigrahi, TollBit's CEO, in an interview with Forbes.
The amount of demand for publisher content is nontrivial."
Chegg alleges that Google has "profoundly" harmed the publisher's ad revenue by including its content in the search giant's AI Overview feature.
The damage to the publisher's bottom line is so severe, the company is considering going private or being acquired.
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