By Connie Guglielmo

It took Netflix three and a half years to reach 1 million users after introducing its groundbreaking, web-driven DVDs-by-mail subscription service in 1999. That was quite an accomplishment, given that people buying into new technologies at that time were considered a niche audience of first adopters unafraid to live on the cutting edge.

In the early 2000s, it took Airbnb two and a half years to attract a million users, Facebook 10 months and music streaming service Spotify just five months to reach that audience size — a sign of increasing consumer comfort with innovative tech services that could add value to their daily lives. When Instagram attracted a million users after less than three months in 2010, it was a big deal, with industry watchers calling out the "insane growth" of the photo-sharing app.

If hitting a million users is a key milestone for turning an untested tech service into a mainstream destination, then think about this: OpenAI's ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot that debuted on Nov. 30, 2022, reached 1 million users in five days.

Five days. 

That's mind-blowing.