Google Gemini Gains on ChatGPT with Surging Engagement & Downloads

• Google Gemini is closing the gap on ChatGPT, showing faster growth in downloads and user engagement.
• ChatGPT remains dominant but its expansion is slowing, with monthly active users (MAUs) growing only 6% between August and November, indicating potential market saturation.
• Gemini's MAUs jumped 30% in the same period, largely driven by its new image generation model, Nano Banana, and daily time spent more than doubled.
• Gemini's market share increased by 3 percentage points, while ChatGPT's slipped by a similar margin, with rivals like Perplexity and Claude also growing significantly.
• ChatGPT's slowing growth has prompted OpenAI's "code red" memo to accelerate improvements in personalization, reliability, and image generation.

Why It Matters: AI chatbot competition intensifies as Gemini gains on ChatGPT.