🚀 Is ChatGPT killing Chegg?

Plus, Airbnb announces more than 50 new features!

Justine & Olivia Moore

May 7

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🤝 AI CEOs visit the White House. VP Kamala Harris and other Biden administration officials met with the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic to discuss the future of AI. Biden himself made a brief appearance, asking the group to help educate the government on the topic - he wants to ensure “responsible, trustworthy, and ethical innovation.” The White House also announced a $140 million investment in AI research, a new committee to publicly evaluate AI models, and a policy plan for federal agencies that shapes how they procure and utilize AI tools.

🏠 Airbnb makes product moves. It was a big week for Airbnb - the company announced 53 (!) product updates to improve the guest and host experience. CEO Brian Chesky said this was the result of his six months of living in Airbnbs + customer feedback. Updates include total price display, transparent checkout instructions, and the ability to pay over time. The company also launched Airbnb Rooms, which allows users to book a stay in a spare room with verified hosts and guests.

🛒 Shopify sells fulfillment business. Shopify is getting out of physical services. The company announced this week that it is refocusing on its core e-commerce platform, and selling its logistics and fulfillment business to Flexport. The deal includes the sale of shipping service company Deliverr - which Shopify acquired just last year for $2.1B - and warehouse automation startup 6 River Systems. Shopify will lay off 20% of its workforce as part of the transaction.

📣 Earnings updates. It was another eventful week for tech earnings:

Apple reported better-than-forecast earnings and revenue, driven by strong iPhone sales and growth in its services segment.
Uber posted a narrower-than-expected loss and a 29% YoY increase in revenue, with rideshare continuing to make a comeback post-COVID. Lyft saw a 14% YoY increase in revenue - but the stock fell on a weak Q2 forecast.
DoorDash beat expectations for both earnings and revenue (up 40% YoY) as it grew in new markets overseas and new categories in the U.S.
Coinbase also beat expectations for Q1, but warned of lower subscription and services revenue and bank disruptions that could create crypto volatility.

If you’re a user of ChatGPT, you might have noticed there’s one key thing missing - it can’t (yet!) search the Internet, or access data or information post-2021. This limits use cases that require real-time info or “scraping” websites.

ChatGPT’s Browsing plug-in, which is in beta testing now, should fix this. But in the meantime…Bing Chat opened up to the public on the Microsoft Edge browser, and can tackle this functionality! You can check it out here.

what we’re following 👀

Amazon launched a TikTok-like shopping feed, Inspire, for all U.S. customers.

Lululemon hosted its first-ever “dupe swap.”

The new private airline services catering to pet owners. 👀

Inside Slack’s pivot towards generative AI.

It was a tough week for Chegg - the company’s stock tumbled 48% after CEO Dan Rosensweig said that ChatGPT was starting to impact customer growth.

What does ChatGPT have to do with a textbook rental business? As it turns out, Chegg is now mostly a digital subscription company - 90% of net revenue comes from subscriptions like StudyPack, which costs $19.95/month and gives you access to textbook answers, essay proofreading, breakdowns of math Qs, and more.

Now, ChatGPT can do many of these tasks - and it’s free! While Chegg says it’s still seeing high retention, it’s not surprising to imagine a world where existing subscribers figure this out and churn from Chegg. Because it’s “too early to tell how this will play out,” the company stopped providing earnings guidance beyond the current quarter.

Is this the end for Chegg? Maybe in its current form - but according to Rosensweig, the company is pivoting to focus on incorporating AI. The first product here is CheggMate, a conversational study assistant powered by GPT-4 that will launch in beta later this month and tap into Chegg’s unique content and expert network.

Chegg is not the only company to feel the impact of ChatGPT. Language learning app Duolingo and educational media company Pearson both saw their shares drop this week over fears that they might see similar disruptions - though Duolingo also launched a GPT-4 powered product two months ago. And Khan Academy announced an AI assistant for both teachers and students (called Khanmigo).

Edtech has been one of the hottest categories for AI, with apps like Cramly, Caktus, and PicSolve surging in popularity - along with ChatGPT itself. And even before this current wave of generative AI apps, Photomath (scan a math problem, get an answer) was one of the top-downloaded global edtech products of the last decade! But whether this interest can support massive, revenue-generating companies, or whether the value will accrue to the generalist chatbots like ChatGPT feels TBD…