Open AI Testing Search to Rival Google; NBA Signs Deals with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal; Douyin Misses Sales Goal

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 29th Jul 2024 in News

On today’s news digest: Open AI Testing Search to Rival Google; NBA Signs Deals with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal; Douyin Misses E-Commerce Sales Goal

In an attempt to outpace rival Google, OpenAI is testing a new online search tool prototype: SearchGPT. The temporary prototype will only be made available to a small number of users – OpenAI’s plan is to eventually integrate the best features of the prototype into ChatGPT. On Thursday, the AI company shared a waiting list with 10,000 spaces for those wishing to test the product. Evolving beyond the service provided by ChatGPT, SearchGPT functions more like a regular search engine, offering users more links and opportunities to click through to external websites containing relevant sources. Regarding its collaboration with publishers, OpenAI states: “We’ve partnered with publishers to build this experience and continue to seek their feedback.” OpenAI also said it will be launching a way for publishers to manage how they appear in the SearchGPT’s results.

Following speculation over who its new media rights partners would be, the US’ National Basketball Association (NBA) has renewed deals with Disney and Amazon, as well as striking a new partnership with NBCUniversal. The NBA rejected Warner Bros Discovery’s offer of a USD$1.8bn (£1.4bn) yearly payment, claiming that the terms of the deal did not match those offered by Amazon. The NBA explained that its arrangement with Amazon best supports its goal of maximising the reach and accessibility of their games for fans through the broadcast, cable and streaming packages which also form part of its agreements with Disney and NBCniversal.

Meanwhile, Douyin – the ByteDance owned, Chinese version of TikTok which launched online shopping in 2018 – missed its target gross merchandise value for the first half of the year. The missed target is reportedly a result of weak consumer spending, as well as increased competition in the domestic e-commerce market. Douyin’s gross merchandise value for H1 reached an equivalent of £150bn. Despite having launched a stand-alone shopping app in March, the company’s e-commerce growth rate dropped from over 60% in January and February to just 30% after the second quarter.