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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.

Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?

The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

How do customers interact with my newly launched product?

How do I increase the productivity of my employees?

How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?

We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.

So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.

But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!

But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.

We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.

Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

What Is Data Analytics?
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.
Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.
Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

Budgeting and saving are always hot discussion topics, but as the cost of living has risen globally in recent years — reaching crisis levels in many countries — that topic seems to have heated up. So, what are people saying? We used our social listening and analytics solution to see what a year of budget and savings conversations can tell us about the top messaging trends around this crucial subject.

Dive into even more consumer finance data in our banking and financial services industry report. 

Humor and relatability drive budget and saving conversations 

From October 16, 2023, to October 15, 2024, there were more than 2.6 million social media mentions of keywords and phrases related to budgeting and saving. Those conversations touched on everything from discussions about financial restraints to sharing advice on managing budgets effectively. 

Budgeting and saving mentions spiked highest on October 24, 2023 (17x higher than average) when a post on X joking about tight budgets went viral. Meanwhile, the second biggest day for budgeting and saving conversations was February 5, 2024, when mentions spiked 10x higher than average. That day another post on X joking about balancing saving money with enjoying life went viral, with one repost from an influencer reaching about 160,000 users that day alone.

This viral post from February has now been viewed about 9.7 million times.

Notably, the third-highest spike in conversation, 6x higher than average on July 23 this year, was driven by a Reddit post. The post in r/AskReddit asking “What’s your most money consuming hobby?” has generated about 19,000 replies from users revealing the sometimes surprising interests that break their budgets.

Responses to this Reddit post mention everything from watch collections to fancy cheeses to horse ownership.

While this post is not as straightforwardly funny as the other two that drove large spikes, it did include many funny responses. Rather, what seems to have driven the popularity of all three of these posts is relatability — almost all consumers can relate to living on a tight budget and giving in to the urge to spend money on something simply because it brings you joy. These posts are reassurance that other people are facing the same struggle.

Engagement with budget and saving content is seasonal

While the volume of conversation about budgeting and saving had several dramatic spikes throughout the year, spikes and growth in engagement with budgeting and saving content were much more isolated. First, engagement spiked significantly the day after Christmas and just before New Year’s Eve. Those days, several popular posts discussed personal finance and budgeting, including saving money and controlling expenses after the holidays. Some of the posts that generated the most engagement offered budget-friendly recipes and tips for saving money effectively.

After a dip in early June, engagement rose again from late July to early August. At this time, several posts mentioned budgeting for specific items, like wedding gifts and travel, likely reflecting the end-of-summer spending pressures many consumers face.

Finally, engagement has currently been rising since mid-September 2024, largely due to an increase in conversations about national budgets, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Overall, these trends suggest that transition periods — just after top spending occasions like holidays and vacation time, as well as elections and national budget talks — are when social media users are most concerned with budgeting and saving.

Money and personal finances can be sensitive topics, but humor and frankness get social media users buzzing about the topic. While funny posts give people catharsis from anxiety about their spending, posts about budget-friendly recipes and DIY hacks offer them some of the solutions they are hungry for. Still, social media users are looking for more detailed insight into how they can effectively save money. 

The hunt for insight into how to get by in today’s economic landscape is part of why money-focused subreddits like r/personalfinance, r/Money, and others are so popular in this conversation. 

Marketers, especially in the finance sector, have many untapped opportunities to bring consumers valuable budgeting and saving information. However, that information needs to draw attention with humor, creativity, relatability, and authentic insight into common financial pressures or risk being lost to the black hole of the internet.

Budgeting and Saving Buzz on Social Media

Consumers are at a tipping point when it comes to tipping culture, especially regarding the food service sector. From U.S. ballot initiatives about what the minimum wage should be for tipped workers to memes about iPads with tip options showing up in unexpected places, there is widespread debate about tipping’s place in society today. But which way is the digital chatter trending? We used our Meltwater social listening capability and Meltwater consumer intelligence solution to get a pulse on the online conversation about tipping in food service. 

Explore more consumer insights about the food and beverage sector in our data-rich industry report.

How do social media users feel about tipping?

From January 1 to October 22, 2024, there were more than 60,640 English-language posts about tipping in food services across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, X, and forums. Overall, there are about four times more negative posts about tipping than positive ones. 

The conversation was at its highest this summer, with the volume of posts from June to August being about 42% higher than from March to May. This increase in posts may correspond with more people going out for food during the warmer months and vacation time. Interestingly, though volume peaked in August, engagement actions peaked in July thanks to one particularly buzzy Reddit post (more on that below).

Of the posts that mentioned particular service experiences, nearly half mentioned sit-down and dine-in restaurants. Of those posts, many expressed negative views on tipping culture with several highlighting increased pressure to tip due to pre-entered tip screens on iPad devices at restaurants. 

About 40% of experience-specific posts mentioned pickup and takeout orders, with many questioning whether or not tips should be expected. In both segments of the conversation, the most engaging piece of content was this Instagram post from comedian DL Hughley featuring a video from on-the-street interview series Subway Takes. 

This post about tipping generated the most engagement actions of those that mentioned eating at restaurants and takeout orders.

In it, comedian Robby Hoffman shares her opinion that businesses should pay employees a living wage instead of expecting customers to give a mandatory tip. The post has generated 30,477 likes since April.

Each month except August, Reddit was the top source of social media conversation about tipping. Fittingly, r/tipping, a community of about 28,000 members dedicated to U.S. tipping culture, was the top subreddit for the discussion. However, the Reddit post that generated the most engagement came from r/AITAH, a subreddit with about 2.5 million members where users ask for judgment on their behavior, and significantly boosted engagement actions for the overall conversation in July. The post in question asked “AITAH for not tipping after overhearing what my waitress said about me?”, generating about 56.2K engagement actions. This included about 8,200 comments weighing in on racial discrimination and when it’s appropriate not to tip.

This post about tipping generated the most engagement actions on X.

On X, where about 30% of the overall tipping conversation originated, August was the top month for relevant mentions. The most engaged post from X, posted on August 26, came in response to a screenshot of a post from a server complaining about European diners leaving no tip on a $288 bill. That highly engaged response, arguing that “Tipping should be something extra for wonderful service, not wage subsidizing” generated more than 57,000 likes, about 1,600 reposts, and 411 comments.

Other top X posts from that month include one featuring a video of a tip screen at a fast food drive-thru and another asking users how much they would tip on $74.42. Both, like other highly engaged content in this discussion, touch on consumer questions about what is the new norm in tipping.

While the idea of “tipping fatigue” has emerged over the past few years, our analysis reveals a consumer attitude that may be more akin to “tipping anxiety”. Reddit, where netizens go for advice and recommendations, may have emerged as a top source for the tipping discussion because so many people discussing tipping are looking for answers on what is appropriate in today’s economic landscape. Across sources, engagement is high with content that speaks to this anxiety as people seek out reassurance that their tipping practices and views are correct. Tipping’s impact on workers and businesses is a prominent thread of the overall tipping conversation. However, when it comes to the buzz around being a food service customer today, our analysis suggests that the current state of tipping culture is souring the experience. 

Exploring Tipping Culture: Insights from Social Media

Digital advance continues, with 5½ billion people now online

2024 has been a year packed with impressive digital milestones, and that trend shows no signs of slowing as we enter the final quarter of the year.

As we’ll explore in detail in this extensive analysis, our new Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report – published in partnership between We Are Social and Meltwater – has big new numbers for overall digital adoption, for some of the world’s top social media platforms, and for various connected behaviours.

Top stories in this quarter’s update to our Global Digital Reports series include:

Internet users have passed the 5½ billion mark

ChatGPT is delivering a variety of impressive numbers

Social media time dips, but adoption accelerates

Rivalries between Instagram and TikTok reach new levels

A host of impressive numbers for Threads, Telegram, and Snapchat

A closer look at what’s been happening at X

The rise of social search when researching brands

QR codes finally have something to celebrate

That’s only a teaser of what that you’ll find in this quarter’s full report though, and this latest edition of our Global Digital Reports series is packed with loads more data, insights, and surprises.

This quarter’s reports feature an exceptional wealth of data and insight, thanks to the support and generosity of our wonderful data partners:

All of this analysis was written by a human, without the use of generative AI [click here to learn why this matters]. Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Please note the following before you dive into this latest round of data:

The United Nations published a comprehensive update to its World Population Prospects data in recent weeks, and this update included some important revisions to population numbers around the world. In addition to impacting the figures that we report for population, these revisions may also affect any data point where we show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the total population (e.g. internet and social media adoption), or as a percentage of a specific age group within the broader population (e.g. people aged 18 and above). As a consequence, any comparisons with equivalent data points published in the Global Digital Reports series prior to the current October 2024 report may result in unexpected trends, including apparent decreases in user figures or activity. However, any such change may be solely the result of changes in (and revisions to) underlying population data, and may not necessarily indicate any change in actual digital adoption or behaviour. As a result, we advise significant caution when interpreting any changes in values that show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the population. For more details, please see our comprehensive notes on data.

The growth in X’s published ad reach between July 2024 and October 2024 is surprisingly similar across almost all countries, with 222 out of 231 included territories seeing a growth rate of between +0.7% and +0.8%. Our analysis of third-party data suggests that these changes in X’s own ad reach figures may not accurately represent changes in X use over time, so we advise significant caution when interpreting X’s latest ad reach data.

The complete Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report

You’ll find this quarter’s main report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to explore my in-depth analysis of what all these numbers actually mean for you and your work.

The global state of digital in October 2024

Let’s start by exploring the latest headlines for digital adoption and use around the world:

The United Nations’ latest population data points to a total of 8.18 billion humans living on Earth today. That figure has grown by 70 million people (+0.9 percent) since October 2023, and 58 percent of the total population now lives in urban areas.

5.75 billion people now use a mobile phone, equating to 70.3 percent of the world’s total population. The global user total has grown by 119 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, data shows that smartphones now account for more than 85 percent of the mobile handsets in use around the world.

A total of 5.52 billion people were using the internet at the start of October 2024, equating to 67.5 percent global internet penetration. Internet users have increased by 151 million (+2.8 percent) over the past 12 months, but a total of 2.66 billion people remain offline as we enter the last three months of 2024.

Kepios’s latest analysis puts global social media user identities at 5.22 billion, with that figure equating to 63.8 percent of all the people on Earth. The global total has increased by more than 5 percent over the past year, thanks to the addition of 256 million new user identities [but note that “user identities” may not represent unique individuals].

Internet use reaches another big milestone

Kepios analysis indicates that more than 5½ billion people around the world are using the internet in October 2024.

This figure reflects the latest data from a number of reputable sources, including internet adoption figures from the ITU and local regulatory authorities, mobile internet subscriber data from GSMA Intelligence, survey data from Eurostat, and user data from a variety of digital platforms.

Trends in this data indicate that digital adoption continues to grow too, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than we’ve seen in recent reports.

The current user total has increased by 2.8 percent since this time last year, although it’s worth noting that recent revisions to the United Nations’ world population data (as detailed above) may have impacted this growth figure.

For perspective, data indicate that internet users grew slightly faster – by 2.9 percent – between October 2022 and October 2023, while the figure for the previous year (2021 to 2022) was almost double the current figure, at 5.5 percent.

Nonetheless, these latest numbers indicate that more than 151 million people came online for the first time over the past 12 months, at an average rate of 4.8 new users every second.

Moreover, the complexities of collecting internet user data mean that the most recent figures often under-represent actual internet adoption, so we expect to see an upward “correction” in these latest growth figures as more data becomes available over the coming months.

Meanwhile, internet penetration (i.e. internet users as a percentage of total population) has increased by a relative 1.9 percent over the past year.

That growth is encouraging, but – similar to the trends we saw above – this latest increase is slightly below the 2.0 percent figure that we saw for growth between October 2022 and October 2023.

Note that growth in the user total is partly fuelled by an increase in total population (i.e. there are more people in the world today than there were this time last year), which explains why the user total appears to be growing at a faster rate than the penetration figure.

Please also be aware that we regularly revise our historical internet user data, so the figures you see on these charts likely won’t match or correlate with figures that we published in previous updates to the Global Digital Reports series. 

Turning our attention to internet behaviours, the latest research from GWI reveals that the typical internet user now spends 6 hours and 36 minutes per day online.

This “connected time” includes a variety of activities – from watching Netflix and listening to Spotify, to online shopping and work-related activities – but this diversity doesn’t detract from the gravity of this finding.

Indeed, this daily average means that we now spend a total of more than 46 hours using the internet each week, which is 15 percent more than more than a “typical” working week of 40 hours.

For perspective, the latest research from YouGov indicates that most people sleep for between 7 and 8 hours a day, so GWI’s latest figures for daily internet activity suggest that people spend roughly 40 percent of their waking lives online.

In other words, for many people, connected activities account for the greatest “share of life” after sleep.

Despite already being our most-used devices, mobile phones continue to play an ever more important role in our connected lives.

The latest data from Statcounter shows that mobiles now account for more than 60 percent of global web traffic, after a somewhat unexpected dip in share towards the end of last year.

Mobile’s share of global web traffic has remained above 60 percent since May of this year, and even surpassed 62 percent in August 2024, before flipping back slightly in September.

It’s not unusual to see meaningful fluctuations in these share figures over time, but the overall trends point to mobile’s steadily increasing dominance.

Nevertheless, Statcounter’s data shows that some countries are still heavily reliant on computers when it comes to web activity.

For example, mobile devices account for less than 30 percent of web traffic in Denmark, and mobiles are also a clear second choice in Switzerland, Japan, and Sweden.

Reassuringly, this Statcounter data echoes trends we see in GWI’s research, which finds that people in Japan and Denmark are amongst the least likely to use mobile devices to go online, together with people in Canada and the UK.

Similarly, GWI’s data shows that mobiles account for less than half of connected time across all four of these countries.

The case for mobile internet is increasingly compelling however, especially with the latest Speedtest data from Ookla showing that the median speed of mobile internet connections continues to increase.

For clarity, these figures refer to the speed of cellular data networks, and do not include WiFi access on mobile devices.

At a worldwide level, the typical mobile user now enjoys download speeds of 55.8 Mbps, with that figure jumping by almost 30 percent since this time last year.

Impressively, users in a total of 17 countries now enjoy median mobile download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps, while figures in the UAE and Qatar look set to break the 400 Mbps mark in the next few months.

However, users in various countries still struggle with “laggy” connections, with Ookla reporting that median download speeds remain below 10 Mbps in both Yemen and Afghanistan.

Users in Latin America often contend with slow connections too, with median cellular bandwidth still stuck below 20 Mbps in Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, and Paraguay.

Mobile isn’t necessarily an “inferior” choice though, and mobile connections now outpace fixed internet speeds in a total of 34 countries around the world, with users in Suriname experiencing the greatest gap in favour of cellular data connections.

The latest intelligence from data.ai reveals that use of the ChatGPT mobile app has surged over recent weeks, with the app ranking amongst the top ten “breakout” apps by monthly active users between June and August 2024.

“Breakout apps” are those that delivered the largest absolute increases in the relevant metric during the analysis period, so this data provides clear evidence that ChatGPT continues to gain solid momentum, nearly two years after its public launch.

It’s worth highlighting that TikTok and Instagram both added more active users during this same three-month period, but the fact that ChatGPT ranks alongside apps of that size will be particularly encouraging for the OpenAI team.

ChatGPT also placed tenth in data.ai’s ranking of the biggest gainers by download volume, so there’s every chance that we’ll see those active user figures continue to grow over the coming months too.

But it’s not just data.ai’s figures that point to sustained ChatGPT growth.

Similarweb’s data shows that more than a quarter of a billion unique visitors went to ChatGPT.com each month between June and August, resulting in an average of 2.5 billion total site visits per month.

Trends over time look encouraging too, with Similarweb reporting that worldwide site traffic increased by 8 percent between July and August 2024.

Meanwhile, Semrush reports even higher figures, with unique visitor numbers at 392 million for August 2024, and total site visits at 3.1 billion.

Semrush’s growth figures for ChatGPT.com are more modest though, with the traffic analysts reporting an increase of just over 3 percent between July and August 2024.

Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report

Spend a day running errands and you’re likely to run into a bay of self-checkout machines at your local discount or grocery store chain. First introduced at a Kroger store in Georgia in 1986, self-checkouts became more popular in the early 2000s. They have since become a controversial topic among shoppers, with some praising the technology for streamlining the retail experience and others trying to avoid it at all costs. Ask your coworker, neighbor, or friend and chances are you will find someone with a strong opinion about self-checkout, but a consensus is a bit harder to come by. We used our Meltwater social listening and analytics solution to get closer to the truth about how consumers view self-checkout.

Want to connect with retail customers? Check out our retail industry report. 

The self-checkout digital conversation overall

From October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, there were about 168,000 social media, blog, product reviews, comments, and podcast mentions expressing an opinion about self-checkout. There were about 458 mentions of the technology daily, with higher mentions on average from October through mid-March.


Walmart was the most-mentioned organization, followed by Target. This is likely because both stores introduced new self-checkout policies this year. 

When it comes to how people feel about self-checkout, sentiment is much more negative than positive. 


As our AI-powered insight feature summarizes, many positive posts mention loving the convenience (as well as the ability to steal easily), while many negative posts mention technical, social, and economic frustrations with the systems.

Learn more about why AI-powered insights are important for marketers.

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