Nano Banana Saves Google: Gemini Dethrones ChatGPT as GOOG Hits $3 Trillion – Decrypt

Google’s Gemini app hit the highest of the Apple App Retailer on September 15, dethroning ChatGPT for the primary time since OpenAI’s chatbot launched practically three years in the past. The catalyst wasn’t a breakthrough in synthetic normal intelligence or some new reasoning mode—in any case, Gemini 2.5 was launched in March—it appears to be the general public’s thirst for making memes and modifying photographs.

“Picture modifying is likely one of the hottest use circumstances for Nano Banana,” the corporate tweeted final week. Whereas Google did not present any particular causes for its come-from-behind surge in recognition, given the timing, it is secure to imagine that Nano Banana gave the corporate an enormous bump.

One particular immediate for Google’s new picture modifying mannequin let customers rework images into 3D collectible-style portraits full with plastic packaging and show bases. That was sufficient to make the Gemini have its “wen moon” second.

Inside two weeks of going viral in early September, Gemini hit #1 on each the Apple App Retailer and Google Play Retailer globally. The app added 23 million first-time customers and customers generated over half a billion photographs in days, in accordance with Google’s VP Josh Woodward.

Google Developments information reveals world searches for Gemini overtook ChatGPT on September 12—the primary time that is occurred since ChatGPT’s November 2022 debut.

Earlier than Nano Banana, Gemini pulled in about 13 million month-to-month downloads in comparison with ChatGPT’s 64 million, in accordance with AppMagic. ChatGPT commanded 60% of AI-related net visitors with practically 6 billion month-to-month visits, nearly 10 instances Gemini’s numbers regardless of being built-in into Android gadgets and Google companies utilized by 2 billion folks.

The surge helped push Alphabet’s market cap previous $3 trillion, with shares climbing 4% to round $252. That places Google’s guardian firm in rarefied air alongside Nvidia ($4.3 trillion), Microsoft ($3.8 trillion), and Apple ($3.5 trillion).

Alphabet’s inventory has climbed practically 30% year-to-date, outpacing the Nasdaq’s 15% acquire. The September milestone got here after a positive antitrust ruling that prevented forcing Google to divest Chrome or Android. However the Nano Banana phenomenon contributed on to investor enthusiasm. Analysts challenge the function might assist Google improve its income by way of new Gemini subscriptions.

“If Gemini can stay on the high of the App Retailer charts, we consider extra traders will begin to view Gemini as a robust core providing with incremental use circumstances that complement (versus cannibalize) the core search expertise,” Keybanc Capital analyst Justin Patterson wrote in a report.

OpenAI realized this lesson months in the past. Its “Ghiblify” function—which reworked images into Studio Ghibli-style animations—drove greater than 1 million folks to join ChatGPT in a single hour. The function went so viral that OpenAI needed to implement price limits after customers generated thousands and thousands of whimsical portraits, even recreating controversial moments just like the 9/11 terrorist assaults within the Ghibli type.

xAI found the identical dynamic with Grok, although Elon Musk’s firm took a special strategy. When Grok customers discovered they might generate anime-style “waifus” with out the content material restrictions different AIs imposed, downloads spiked 300% in Asian markets. Musk himself posted a number of generated photographs on X, alongside a “spicy mode” that permit customers generate NSFW movies utilizing Grok’s AI

ChatGPT nonetheless dominates on uncooked metrics—700 million weekly energetic customers and over 1 billion every day queries within the final quarter, however Gemini’s sudden rise reveals how shortly the panorama can shift when an AI function catches hearth on social media.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis tweeted: “Congrats to the @GeminiApp crew… that is simply the beginning.”

Let’s hope there are extra memes to return.