OpenAI is bringing its advertising platform to India this week. It is allowing businesses to place sponsored messages in ChatGPT as the company expands its ads program in one of its key markets. The rollout will initially cover logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans.
More than 50 brands are expected to launch advertisements on ChatGPT in India this week. OpenAI also named WPP and Omnicom as its first agency partners in the country. The agencies will support advertisers with campaign planning, creative development, measurement and brand safety. The partnership is non-exclusive. OpenAI said it expects to add more agencies as its advertising business expands.
Businesses in India will be able to manage campaigns directly through ChatGPT Ads Manager from September 4. The self-serve platform will cater to businesses of different sizes, with daily campaign budgets starting at Rs. 725. OpenAI's current Ads Manager documentation also lists Rs. 725 as the minimum daily budget for campaigns in India.
Sponsored messages will appear below a ChatGPT response when a relevant advertisement is available. OpenAI said ads will carry clear sponsored labels and will be kept separate from ChatGPT's generated answers.
The company said advertising will not influence the answers generated by ChatGPT. Responses will continue to be designed around what is useful to the user rather than the interests of an advertiser.
“India is one of the most dynamic markets in the world for how people use ChatGPT to learn, build, and discover,” said Dave Dugan, Vice President and Head of Global Ads Solutions at OpenAI.
He said weekly active users in India have doubled year-on-year. Dugan added that many users use ChatGPT to explore options and make decisions rather than only search for information.
“Our goal is to make those interactions useful, help marketers design for intelligent experiences, and preserve what makes ChatGPT valuable: independent answers, conversations that stay private from advertisers, and meaningful user control,” Dugan highlighted.
OpenAI said advertisers will not receive access to users' conversations, chat history, memories or personal details, but will instead receive aggregated information, such as ad impressions and clicks. The company also said it does not sell user data to advertisers. Users will have controls to dismiss advertisements, provide feedback and manage ad personalization.
OpenAI also allows users to clear data used for advertising. Ads will not be shown to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18. OpenAI's advertising policies also restrict ad placement around sensitive contexts, including political content and mental and personal health conversations.
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