ChatGPT has found the entrance to the AI era.

Historically, almost every major technological revolution has been accompanied by the change of distribution platforms.

Google reshaped the traffic distribution of websites through search; Apple rewritten the distribution logic of the mobile Internet via the App Store. They redefined the way users connect with products and thus gained control over the most core power on the Internet—the right to allocate traffic.

For a long time in the past, despite ChatGPT having over 700 million monthly active users, it has always lacked a real distribution ecosystem. It is like a powerful tool but not yet a platform capable of hosting an ecosystem. This has also limited its commercial potential within the boundaries of the "dialogue box".

However, all this is changing.

At a recent press conference, OpenAI launched the App SDK, enabling users to directly call third - party software within ChatGPT. This change has brought ChatGPT's ecosystem closer to Apple's App Store, except that the interface has changed from icons to natural language.

Sam Altman also stated directly in a recent interview that OpenAI's goal has never been to create a "super app" but to build an "AI super - system". And this opening - up is a crucial step towards achieving this goal.

For developers, this means a historic opportunity to bypass search engines and directly meet user needs; for the Internet, it means that the focus of traffic is quietly shifting. The traffic that used to flow through advertising, SEO, and app stores may all flow into ChatGPT's native ecosystem in the future.

When the distribution mechanism is rewritten, the business landscape based on traffic will be reshuffled. And ChatGPT may well have found the real gateway to the AI era.

01 ChatGPT Finally Has Its Own Distribution Platform

Apps inside ChatGPT are equivalent to OpenAI's own App SDK.

What's the use of this? Simply put, you can open others' applications on ChatGPT.

For example, in the past, if you wanted to learn machine learning, you had to open Coursera; if you wanted to draw, you had to open Figma; if you wanted to search for a rental, you had to go to Zillow. Now, you can complete all these tasks in one - stop by typing a sentence in the ChatGPT dialogue box.

For instance, you can say, "Figma, turn this sketch into an editable flowchart." Or, "Coursera, teach me some basic knowledge of machine learning."

In OpenAI's official demonstration, users can even use natural language to say to Zillow:

"Help me find a two - bedroom apartment in San Francisco for less than $3000." ChatGPT will then generate an interactive map in the window, list all available properties, and support continued conversations, filtering, and comparison.

The most amazing thing is that users don't even need to remember the names of all apps. When you enter your needs, ChatGPT will automatically determine if there is a suitable third - party application.

For example, if you say "Create a party playlist for me", it may automatically call Spotify; if you say "Help me order takeout for tonight", the system will subsequently bring up DoorDash.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has also considered commercialization needs. If users are already subscribers to the developer's existing products, they can directly log in to their accounts in the conversation. In the future, OpenAI will also support various monetization methods, including the new Agentic Commerce Protocol, which will allow for instant checkout within ChatGPT.

That is to say, developers can not only connect to ChatGPT but also immediately earn revenue through the "Instant Checkout" feature. This makes ChatGPT's ecosystem more similar to the Apple App Store model, except that the interface has become a natural - language dialogue.

Compared with the new user experience, the greater significance of this is that ChatGPT finally has a real "developer distribution channel", filling the gap in its previous model.

For a long time in the past, as a super - app with 700 million monthly active users, ChatGPT has never established a suitable distribution ecosystem, which has made it unable to shed its tool - like nature and greatly limited its value.

Having a distribution platform means having control over the distribution of hundreds of millions of global traffic on ChatGPT and having the opportunity to reshape the current way of obtaining Internet traffic.

If Google Search and Apple's App Store redefined the distribution models of PC and mobile Internet, then this update of ChatGPT is very likely to rewrite the "gateway to the AI era".

02 When Memory Becomes the Moat: The Beginning of AI Reshaping Distribution

Actually, it was almost inevitable for OpenAI to build a distribution platform.

Looking back at the technological revolutions in the past few decades, the greatest value often lies in the transformation of distribution platforms. For example, Google achieved website traffic distribution through search; Apple reshaped mobile distribution through the App Store. They both created new ways for users to connect with products.

It's worth noting that technological revolutions and distribution revolutions never occur simultaneously. The emergence of new technologies is often just the beginning, and real large - scale distribution is always reinvented several years later.

For example, the Internet created websites in the early 1990s, but Google didn't become the dominant distribution mechanism until 1998 and wasn't truly monetized until the 2000s. There was almost a decade between the technology and its distribution.

As a new round of technological revolution, AI has not yet achieved a transformation in its distribution channels. However, we can still see some trends: Traditional distribution channels are being destroyed by AI.

SEO is a prime example. In the AI era, users no longer obtain information by clicking on web pages. AI search engines such as Perplexity and ChatGPT Search are taking over the distribution of traffic.

This is the real dilemma of the current AI wave: The old traffic channels are collapsing, and the new distribution mechanism has not been established.

However, all the pre - conditions for the birth of a new distribution platform have emerged in ChatGPT. The key is that it has finally found its own moat.

Looking back at history, every time a new distribution platform rises, it is built on unique barriers.

Facebook's moat is the social relationship chain. It knows "who knows whom".

Google's moat is search intent. It knows "what people want".

Apple's moat is its ecosystem and hardware. It knows "who is using what".

And ChatGPT's moat is "context and memory". It knows "what the user is thinking".

This means that ChatGPT not only knows the user's current needs but also understands the user's past preferences, tone, emotions, and goals. Its memory system makes interactions continuous and evolving rather than one - time. This continuity is something that no other platform can match.

As Bessemer said in the "2025 AI State Report", "For AI applications, memory and context will become the new moats. In the future, the user's switching cost will not only be data migration but also emotional dependence."

Actually, when you compare the current models on the market, you'll find that the gap in their pure capabilities is not that large. Whether it's writing copy, generating images, or writing code, the underlying models are becoming more and more similar. What really determines the difference in experience is not "how smart the model is" but how well it understands you.

Because only "model + context" can give results that are truly tailored to the individual. When a model starts to understand your preferences, tone, habits, and even your way of thinking, its output will truly seem "custom - made for you".

This process will automatically form a flywheel around memory: the more you use it, the more information it accumulates about you; the richer the memory, the more complete the context it provides; the more sufficient the context, the more accurate the result; the better the experience, the more willing you are to continue using it. This cycle will continuously amplify the model's intelligence and personalized experience.

Ultimately, memory is no longer just a function but a self - reinforcing moat.

Currently, ChatGPT is undoubtedly the furthest along this path. It was the first to launch a memory function and has been heavily investing in various types of data connectors, essentially to collect more context.

Now it seems that this memory ability is being transformed into user trust, becoming the core asset of the ChatGPT brand and completely widening the gap between it and other AI products.

According to data from the AI product list, ChatGPT's monthly visits in September exceeded 6 billion, more than the combined visits of the second - to ninth - ranked AI products. On mobile, ChatGPT has over 700 million monthly active users, five times that of the second - ranked Quark.

What is more convincing than the user scale is its amazing retention rate.

According to data released by Deedy Das, an investor at Menlo Ventures, ChatGPT's retention rate has increased from 60% two years ago to nearly 90% now, exceeding that of YouTube (about 85%), which has held the record for a long time.

Even more rarely, its six - month retention rate is approaching 80%, and there is an extremely rare "smile curve"—after the initial enthusiasm, users will return to the product, and their long - term stickiness is even stronger.

This retention characteristic has only appeared in top - tier products such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack.

Google eliminated all search engines with its retention rate and depth of use.

Facebook surpassed larger competitors with the high engagement of its social relationships.

From this perspective, ChatGPT is no longer just a product but has all the characteristics of becoming a new - generation distribution platform: Strong memory, strong trust, high retention, and high engagement.

03 ChatGPT's Opening - Up Is Just the Beginning

Opening - up is not the end for ChatGPT.

Looking back, almost every distribution platform that has established a monopoly position has gone through the same three - part process: first, find the moat; then, expand through opening - up; finally, tighten control at the peak.

At the beginning, the platform needs to determine its core advantage, which is the moat. After finding it, they will do everything possible to amplify this advantage, which is often beyond their own capabilities. So, they will open up externally, inviting developers, creators, and third - party enterprises to build an ecosystem together.

This is a typical "value exchange": you bring more content, functions, and user stickiness to the platform, and the platform rewards you with traffic and distribution opportunities. Back then, Facebook, Google, and Apple all said similar things to developers: "You create, and I'll help you distribute."

But the second half of the story is always similar. As the ecosystem matures and user perception stabilizes, the platform begins to take back "power".

This is how Facebook started in 2007. At that time, they painted a big picture—developers could create applications here, and the platform would provide space and traffic. All the money earned would go to the developers, and the platform would only make money from sidebar ads.

So, countless entrepreneurs flocked in. Social games, event plugins, and photo album applications blossomed overnight. The most typical example is FarmVille, which became a global phenomenon, and Zynga's valuation once reached as high as $10 billion.

But just two or three years later, the platform rules changed.

Starting in 2009, Facebook gradually blocked the channels for viral spread: notifications were restricted, invitations were restricted, and algorithm changes led to a sharp drop in application exposure. Zynga's number of players declined sharply, and its revenue was halved.

Then in 2010, they launched Facebook Credits, requiring all apps to use the platform's payment system and taking a 30% cut.

After that, Facebook directly entered the market on its own, launching its own photo, group, event, and market functions, taking back all the traffic originally contributed by developers. By 2012, the "open platform" had become one of the most closed ecosystems in the industry.

This scenario is not unfamiliar. Apple and Google have also followed the same path—open first, then close. Because opening - up is always just a means to obtain commercial value.

In the future, OpenAI will also find it difficult to escape the same trajectory. When it fully understands and stores your historical conversations, personal preferences, and task habits, switching to another AI means giving up months or even years of accumulation. That moment may be when ChatGPT closes its doors.

In the past, Google made SEO prosperous for twenty years; Facebook gave developers five years of dividends. OpenAI's window of opportunity may only be two years, or even shorter.

Perhaps, looking back on today several years from now, we will find that this is the turning point in the fate of ChatGPT and even OpenAI.

Those seemingly "open" measures—the third - party integration request, the MCP protocol, and the proxy platform—are actually not just simple function updates but the prototype of a new - generation software distribution system.

OpenAI is not just building a smarter assistant but is reconstructing a new "destination":

A super - platform that combines the distribution logic of the App Store, the information structure of search engines, and the emotional stickiness of social networks.

However, this time, its moat is no longer the social graph, user - generated content, or network connections, but something deeper—context and memory.

When your thoughts, habits, and history are all precipitated in it, migration will no longer be just a technical problem but a psychological break.

By then, you won't be just using ChatGPT; you'll be living in it.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Crow AI Talk". The author is Smart Crow. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.