In 2025, we witnessed a true Product Hunt (r)evolution so many things changed dramatically. I honestly think this was the most intense year of changes the platform has ever had.
For example, we got to experience all of this:
Verifying profiles (badges)
Alternative product suggestions on launch pages
Views and online count on forum posts
Adding/Removing the ambassador program
Forums instead of Discussions
Changing the UX/UI of launch pages
Removing Coming soon (Notify me pages)
Adding/Removing downvotes on comments
Forum comments now showing up on our profiles
More extensive footer
Redesign of the main page UI (e.g., new notification icon)
Last night I opened LinkedIn for a moment, and at that moment, someone wrote to me who is going to relaunch a product after a year and a half. (Yes, I do not have anything to work on Friday night, don't blame me, I do not have a social life) :D
Needless to say, a lot has changed on this platform in a year.
Last week, OpenAI announced a full-year free subscription for Indian users starting November 4. On top of that, they ve rolled out a Learning Accelerator program offering 5 lakh ChatGPT licenses to students and educators, and begun hiring engineers in Bengaluru.
So why the sudden focus?
Here s my take:
India is now OpenAI s 2nd-largest user base, and probably the fastest-growing.
By locking in early brand trust and language familiarity, OpenAI is essentially building a moat for the next billion users.
The country has 700 million + internet users, but very low per-capita SaaS/AI spending. That s a huge conversion opportunity.
Local competition is heating up as Perplexity, Gemini, and even smaller Indian startups are fighting for daily-use adoption.
