ChatGPT and Perplexity Rank Among the Top 5 Websites Most Scraped by Bots

According to a new study by Decodo, ChatGPT and Perplexity have entered the top 5 websites most frequently subjected to automated data collection on the internet for the first time. This refers to bots using software to collect publicly available information from websites. Previously, artificial intelligence platforms read other websites. Now, the answers from those platforms have also become a source of data for companies.

TikTok ranked first on the list with an 18% share, followed by Google in second place. ChatGPT accounted for 14% of overall activity, moving the service into third place. Perplexity ranked fifth with a 10% share, while Amazon took eighth place. Thus, artificial intelligence services accounted for 2 of the top 5 spots.

Businesses can monitor how ChatGPT ranks their products against competitors and what information it displays about their company. Automated data collection also makes it possible to measure how many times a brand name is mentioned in answers and which sources are cited. According to the study, this shift is linked to buyers increasingly turning to artificial intelligence services when making decisions.

Seven of the websites in the top 10 are new to the list. Only TikTok, Google and Amazon retained their positions from the previous list. Walmart, eBay and Airbnb did not make the top 10 this time. The results show that businesses are monitoring consumer trends emerging on artificial intelligence platforms and social media more than those on traditional online stores.

Decodo expects the Gemini and Copilot services to also enter the top 10 next year. According to the company’s forecast, the party initiating the data collection process could also change. In the future, artificial intelligence agents may decide what data to collect instead of humans. Such agents are artificial intelligence tools that independently plan how to carry out a given task.