When you consider the term “creator,” it’s typically associated with individuals producing content for popular social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram. However, Quora’s AI chatbot platform, Poe, has now initiated a program to compensate bot creators for their contributions. This includes those who create “prompt bots” on Poe itself and developers who integrate their bots with the Poe AI.
This program, which became operational last week, stands as one of the pioneering initiatives to financially acknowledge the work of AI bot creators.
At the launch, there are two avenues for bot creators to generate income. The first involves a revenue-sharing arrangement with the bot’s creator when the bot convinces a user to subscribe to Poe. The other method allows bot creators to establish a per-message fee, which Quora will pay for every message. The latter option is set to be introduced in the near future, according to the company.
Quora introduced its chatbot app, Poe, to the general public in February, enabling users to ask questions and receive answers from various AI chatbots, including those from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and other companies like Anthropic, backed by Google. Beyond being a platform for users to explore new AI technologies in one place, Quora envisioned that the content generated by Poe would help enhance its Q&A site, Quora. If the content produced by Poe meets a certain quality standard, it may be distributed across Quora, potentially reaching its 400 million monthly visitors.
In the meantime, Poe has been gaining momentum in the expanding AI chatbot market.
According to data from market intelligence provider Apptopia, Poe’s mobile app garnered 253,530 downloads during its first month of being open to the public. As of October (up to the 24th), it has accumulated over 18.4 million installations and nearly 1.22 million monthly active users. However, Apptopia estimates that Poe is currently generating just under a quarter of a million dollars in in-app purchase revenue each month. Nevertheless, many Poe users may be engaging with the chatbot platform via the web and subscribing at the rates of $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year, which is not fully reflected in the app’s revenue.
Currently, the Poe creator monetization program is exclusively available to users in the United States and offers up to $20 for each user who subscribes to Poe through a creator’s bots. This metric is calculated in several ways, including if the creator introduces a user to Poe for the first time, leading to a subsequent subscription, or if a bot brings a user back to Poe who eventually subscribes. The program will also take into account situations where a bot’s paywall is seen just before the user subscribes. In the near future, it will include cases where users send messages to a bot at a price set by the developer. More expensive bots will have limitations on the number of users who can send messages, and some bots will be accessible to subscribers only, as per Quora’s statement.
When a user subscribes to Poe, the company will allocate $10 for each monthly subscription or $20 for each annual subscription. This amount will then be divided among monetizing creators who successfully convert activations and paywalls for that subscription, as outlined in the company’s developer documentation. Stripe is used to process the payouts.
Quora anticipates that this program will empower smaller companies and AI research groups to create bots that can reach the public, even if they lack the resources to develop an AI chatbot application independently. It also serves as a method for Poe to attract new subscribers to its chatbot app, resembling an affiliate program in some ways. This could position Poe to better compete with numerous AI chatbot apps, many of which are already generating higher revenue on mobile devices than ChatGPT.
Quora’s CEO, Adam D’Angelo, expressed his expectations for the program, stating that various types of bots are likely to thrive, spanning categories like tutoring, knowledge sharing, therapy, entertainment, virtual assistants, data analysis, storytelling, roleplay, and media creation, including images, videos, and music. He emphasized that, given the emerging nature of this market, there are ample opportunities to provide valuable services to the world and generate income simultaneously.
