Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has released its latest survey of the top 100 generative AI (GenAI) applications, reaffirming OpenAI's ChatGPT as the global leader. Yet the report highlights Google's rapid progress, with Gemini leaping into second place after lagging far behind in earlier rankings.
Google's rise in the rankings
The survey, published twice a year, ranks the top 50 GenAI websites and top 50 mobile apps based on monthly visit traffic and active user counts. While ChatGPT retained its top spot across both categories, Google's Gemini climbed dramatically—from 22nd in mobile apps and unranked in websites in the previous March report—to second place in both.
Google now has four services featured on the website list: Gemini, Google AI Studio, NotebookLM, and Google Labs. The report attributes much of the surge to a spike in Gemini's traffic after May, signaling growing momentum in Google's GenAI strategy.
New entrants and shifts in the market
The rankings also welcomed several new players, including Elon Musk's xAI Grok, Alibaba Group's Quark and Qwen 3, Swedish startup Lovable, and China's Monica-developed Manus. Meanwhile, DeepSeek—featured in the last survey—slipped in traffic but still held a position in the top 10.
xAI's Grok stood out, ranking fourth among websites and 23rd on mobile apps. Its July release of Grok 4 significantly boosted adoption.
China's AI services maintain local dominance
Chinese providers also feature prominently in the list, including Alibaba's Quark, ByteDance's Doubao, and Moonshot AI's Kimi. However, the survey notes that over 70% of their traffic comes from within China, underscoring the global dominance of U.S.-based AI services.
China's strict data localization requirements and restrictions on U.S. AI firms have fueled the growth of domestic offerings. Although OpenAI has shut down ChatGPT access in China, the report indicates some Chinese users continue to access it via VPNs and other circumvention tools.
Emerging trends beyond chatbots
Beyond conversational AI platforms, the survey points to growing interest in "vibe coding" tools—AI-powered programming assistants designed for rapid, collaborative development. Notable entrants in this segment include Swedish startup Lovable and US-based Replit.
Article edited by Jack Wu
