AI reshapes traffic entry points, Morgan Stanley: "Vertical websites" are safe in the short term, but may be marginalized in the long term.
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Author: Long Yue
Source: Hard AI
Generative AI is reshaping how users discover information, posing a potential challenge to Internet platforms reliant on traffic.
According to Hard AI, a Morgan Stanley report on October 15 pointed out that currently, AI represented by ChatGPT acts more as a “distributor” and enabler for classified sites, rather than a platform’s replacer or disruptor. In the short term, leading vertical websites remain stable due to their brand and data moats, but in the long term, as the role of AI assistants evolves, they face risks of user relationships being intercepted and brand value being "emptied out."
We believe the key insight from the ChatGPT wave is that AI is increasingly becoming a distribution layer, not an aggregator aiming to replace classified platforms... For users, this changes the way they initiate searches through conversational interfaces. For platforms, it offers a new path to reach ChatGPT’s vast and active user base in an environment where user intent is clear.
The latest catalyst for this judgment is OpenAI’s recent launch of the ChatGPT Apps feature. According to the report, this feature allows external companies to directly integrate their own data and tools into ChatGPT. Previously, AI only offered broad advice or external links, whereas now, users can browse and filter real-time information directly within the chat interface, such as searching for housing listings through the Zillow plugin.
Traditionally, users entered vertical sites like real estate or automotive through search engines or direct app visits. In the new model, users’ initial interaction shifts to the AI’s dialog interface, but the underlying transaction matching and data support still relies on existing platforms.
The report points out that this model offers platform providers a new path to reach ChatGPT’s vast and active user base, and these users have clear intent. This is in direct contrast to previous market concerns that AI would bypass platforms entirely—preliminary integration practices suggest that ChatGPT still relies on structured data, listings, and market infrastructure from specialized websites.
Morgan Stanley analysts believe AI changes the starting point of user search but does not touch the end point of transaction execution. Simply put, ChatGPT is becoming a new middleman.
The Existing Landscape is Stable: Leading Platforms’ Advantages Stand Out
In the short term, the involvement of AI may even strengthen the positions of industry leaders.
Taking the integration of U.S. real estate site Zillow and ChatGPT as an example, this model not only improves user experience through conversational search, but also enables the platform to avoid the huge costs and risks of self-developing large language models.
Since ChatGPT prefers to interact directly with a single, established, reputable platform, rather than scraping information from multiple sources simultaneously, this actually reinforces the “moat” of major companies in each vertical.
Higher quality conversational search also has the potential to bring in higher-converting potential customers, thereby increasing the platform’s bargaining power with its professional clients (such as real estate agents).
Long-term Hidden Worries: The Risk of Being “Emptied Out”
Though the short-term outlook is optimistic, Morgan Stanley warns of long-term risks. The critical issue is that if users begin and complete their search journeys entirely within ChatGPT, this will gradually erode professional sites’ own brand exposure.
The report identifies two potential risks.
First, if ChatGPT or another large language model becomes the market-leading AI assistant, it will be able to control the ranking, visibility, and commercialization of search results, thus shifting industry dominance from content platforms to interaction interfaces.
Second, the more substantive risk is that AI begins to cannibalize platforms’ “direct access” traffic. That is, users no longer directly open Apps like Rightmove or Auto Trader, but turn to AI assistants. Data show that about 50% of traffic to leading classifieds platforms is direct access, 30% comes from organic search. If ChatGPT begins to eat into the most valuable direct access traffic, it will severely weaken platforms’ brand stickiness.
The report describes the most extreme disruptive scenario as the emergence of an “All-Knowing Assistant.”
In this model, AI is no longer a conduit for information, but becomes a user's full agent and decision “curator,” directly recommending the “best” choices based on comprehensive user understanding, possibly bypassing existing platforms completely. While the current ChatGPT integration model reduces the urgency of this scenario, it remains a long-term disruptive force that the classifieds industry needs to watch out for.
This article is from WeChat Official Account “Hard AI”. For more cutting-edge AI news, please visit here
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