On 29 October Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission published a questionnaire survey of people who use generative AI: which tools they use, why, and whether they pay. For anyone running a business, the most useful figure is this one: asked which AI tool they mainly use, 56.6% of respondents named ChatGPT and 34.6% named Gemini, more than 90% between them.

The survey didn’t ask whether people use AI to find businesses, but going by these figures, when a customer does ask AI which business is good, or what yours is like, those are the two they’re most likely to open. So what you need to know is how ChatGPT and Gemini describe you in Chinese, and you need to check the two separately.

What it is

The Commission had a market research firm run the survey from 6 to 28 May this year. It covered people aged 18 and over in all 22 of Taiwan’s counties and cities who had used generative AI in the past six months, with 1,079 valid responses, and the results were also republished on the Executive Yuan’s website.

Asked which AI tools they use most, with more than one answer allowed, respondents put ChatGPT first at 87.9%, then Gemini at 67.8% and Claude at 8.9%. Asked to pick only their main tool, the split was the 56.6% for ChatGPT and 34.6% for Gemini above. In the Commission’s words, a good number of respondents had used or tried several tools, and using more than one is now common. ChatGPT’s 87.9% and Gemini’s 67.8% alone add up to more than 100%, and by our own arithmetic that means at least 55% of respondents have used both.

As for what they use it for, “acquiring knowledge or learning” (56.5%) and “work tasks” (55%) came top. When choosing a brand, the main reason was that its features suit their needs (47.2%), followed by it being the first one they tried and now being used to it (25.1%).

On paying, among people who use AI, about four in ten (39.8%) had used a paid version in the past six months and the other six in ten (60.2%) had only used free versions, and among those who don’t pay, the main reason was that the free allowance is enough (89.5%). The Commission also put a hypothetical to people who mainly use a free version: if it got worse, say a smaller allowance or slower replies, 76.7% said they’d switch to another company’s free version, and only 15.5% said they’d upgrade to paid.

Why it matters to you

Third-placed Claude is at only 8.9%, and everything below it is smaller still, so the field you need to watch is narrow: ChatGPT and Gemini.

The catch is that over half have used both. The same customer asking ChatGPT one time and Gemini the next is nothing unusual, and the two cite very different sources, so for the same question, who gets mentioned and how can differ too. ChatGPT may put you in its recommendations with your opening hours right, while Gemini doesn’t mention you at all, or still gives your old opening hours. Watch only one and you have no idea what the other is saying about you.

Bear in mind, too, that the survey was done in May. Every company has updated its product several times since, and ChatGPT started showing ads in Taiwan in late September, so the shares will shift. But “it’s mainly these two, and many people use both” is, in our view, unlikely to change any time soon.

Should you act now?

Yes. If a customer asks AI about your line of business, you’ll never know, so the only way is to ask first yourself. In Chinese, in the words customers actually use, put the same set of questions to ChatGPT and then to Gemini, and see whether each one mentions you, gets you right, and speaks well or badly of you. The two answering differently is normal; what you need to know is where they differ, then work back to which page of information led each one to say it.

Asking once isn’t enough, either. Both keep updating, and your website and what’s written about you elsewhere change too, so you need to ask the same set of questions again after a while and compare, before you can tell whether things are getting better or worse.

That’s what our managed GEO service does: we fix your website content, bring what’s said about you elsewhere into line, then regularly put the same set of questions to ChatGPT, Gemini and other leading AI engines, recording each one separately. You just look at the results.

If you’d like to know how AI describes you right now, you can book a demo with one of our consultants. The consultant puts the questions customers in your line of business usually ask to ChatGPT and Gemini there and then, so you can see, engine by engine, whether it’s you or a competitor being mentioned. The same session also covers your website’s GEO audit score. The audit is free, and it looks at whether AI can understand your website.

Further reading