Nigerian and South African businesses have a new place to buy attention: inside ChatGPT. OpenAI announced on Wednesday, 21 October, that it is extending ChatGPT Ads to 26 more countries, bringing the total to 89, CNBC reported. Nigeria and South Africa are the two African markets it named.
Ads appear only for users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscriptions remain ad-free. OpenAI says the ads are clearly labelled, sit apart from ChatGPT's answers and do not influence them.
How a Lagos or Joburg brand buys in
According to PPC Land, which analysed OpenAI's post line by line, advertisers in the new markets can buy through technology partners or through OpenAI's self-service Ads Manager. Ads are matched to the topic of a conversation rather than to keywords: OpenAI's example is a runner planning race-week meals who sees an ad for a grocery delivery service.
The post leaves practical gaps. PPC Land notes that it names only 11 of the 26 new countries, gives no start date for each, and does not say whether Nigerian or South African advertisers will be billed in naira, rand or US dollars, or whether ads can run in local languages. When US self-service opened in May, OpenAI added cost-per-click bidding beside the original CPM model, which launched at $60 per thousand impressions.
Why OpenAI is pushing ads
Advertising is becoming a pillar of OpenAI's business. CNBC reported that the ad unit reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in August, up from $100 million in March. OpenAI says more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since US ads launched in February; PPC Land points out that this is a cumulative count, not the number of active advertisers.
