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Comment by r_thambapillai | Hacker News Reader

really interesting to see them hire two folks from consumer-tech backgrounds, rather than B2B or developer tools. I wonder if that signals an increasing focus on ChatGPT as a consumer product rather than the API / Enterprise products? (Edit: Sarah actually has a background in both Enterprise and Consumer)

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In my opinion, OpenAI is building a platform business [1]. OpenAI is primarily an innovation platform. It provides tools, models, and APIs that enable developers and businesses to create new applications and services, fostering a wide ecosystem of innovation where OpenAI’s technology is the beating heart, driving high-margin revenue. While it also sells API access, its main role aligns with enabling third-party innovation, similar to platforms like Microsoft and Google Android.

However, driving third-party innovation does not relieve OpenAI of the need to create consumer-facing applications like ChatGPT. If OpenAI was to remain exclusively a back-end API business, it would be leaving itself vulnerable to disintermediation as competition from other model providers like Meta enable swapping out the back end. I believe Kevin was brought in to make sure OpenAI has its own relevant front end innovation so that disintermediation is less of a threat.

[1] https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56021

> In my opinion, OpenAI is building a platform business [1]. OpenAI is primarily an innovation platform. It provides tools, models, and APIs that enable developers and businesses to create new applications and services, fostering a wide ecosystem of innovation where OpenAI’s technology is the beating heart, driving high-margin revenue.

This could have been a description of Facebook circa 2010, for a brief moment, everyone was happy with the arrangement.

Inevitably, the platform will start competing with the developers who "innovate" on top of it in order to gain additional revenue; see 2024 Facebook which is no longer a platform by most measures, or the many apps that got Sherlocked by Apple. The countdown clock has started ticking for OpenAI-wrapper products/startups, starting with the ones with the most revenue and/or utility.

This is the most insightful nugget into OAI's consumer product strategy I've read, thank you.

I’m a passionate student of Prof. David Yoffie at HBS. His many case studies on the tech industry are worth buying, as is his book on platforms referred to in my previous comment.

So OpenAI is going to compete directly with Azure, as a PaaS/IaaS? Doesn't make sense. At best they will be a thin layer over Azure.

In this case Azure is responsible for the datacenters, billing, and support.

Why does the existence of ChatGPT reduce the risk of disintermediation?

By creating the best chat interface for its own models - presumably using capabilities that may not be shared with others via APIs - OpenAI ensures that their world class model is harder to replace.

Thought the same when I read - and honestly I think the larger growth vector for OpenAI is their B2B and API potential. But good product leaders can span both, but curious none-the-less

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