In the era of AI advancements, data has become a precious commodity, driving companies of all sizes — from stealth startups to giants like Google and Microsoft — to seek innovative web scraping solutions. 📊 As AI-based tools flood the market, attempting to automate web scraping tasks, the demand for reliable, scalable solutions has never been higher. Some notable entrants include Kadoa, Quid, Vetric, Mind2Web, Scrap.so, Browse.ai, AutoExtract, Isomeric, WebscrapeAI, and Clay.

Despite the proliferation of these tools, as highlighted in a comprehensive article by Apify, achieving reliable, large-scale web scraping remains a significant challenge. ⚙️ The current AI technology often falls short of delivering the consistency and accuracy required for serious web scraping endeavors. Apify, however, continues to stand out as the premier platform for web scraping solutions.

That's when it hit me...instead of re-inventing solved problems when it comes to web scraping using AI, why not leverage the most robust scraping platform available to developers? 💡

I realized that by applying AI to Apify's robust infrastructure, we could simplify the AI task and make it feasible to deliver reliable and affordable data. This eureka moment connected the dots --- combining AI with Apify would allow us to achieve the scalability and precision needed for effective web scraping. 🌐

The Development and Release of Webtap

After my eureka moment, I knew I had to bring the idea to life. The notion of creating a tool that prioritizes reliability and data quality by leveraging AI within Apify's robust framework was too exciting to pass up. I began the development process by diving deep into the Apify Store — yes, scraping a scraping tool was quite intriguing!

I meticulously gathered data from the Apify Store and trained OpenAI's models using this data. The next step was to organize everything into a modern and intuitive user experience. I wanted the product to be not only powerful but also easy to use. After many iterations and refinements, Webtap.ai was born! 🎉

Imagine typing a simple query like "Restaurants in Madrid, currency in EUR, language in Spanish" and instantly getting back the data you need. That's the power and simplicity Webtap brings to the table. 🍽️

Reception Has Been Astonishing

A few weeks ago, we quietly pre-released Webtap by sharing it on LinkedIn with the help of some friends. The immediate response was nothing short of amazing and very promising: 🌟

12k visits to our website (Full disclosure: As a second-time founder, I have network and marketing skills to leverage).

400+ paying customers signed up for our platform (only leveraging free channels 😎)

20+ investors spontaneously reached out (but we happily declined as we are committed to bootstrapping). 🚀

...But we're just getting started.

As mentioned, we chose reliability over scalability for our initial release. Currently, Webtap is in early preview, supporting only 80+ websites and use cases. While this is a significant limitation, and there are still some UX limitations and bugs, we are working hard to expand our capabilities. Our roadmap includes:

Supporting all 1500+ actors on the Apify Store.

Exploring ways to integrate more plugins and input methods, potentially through open source contributions

Leverage the Apify GPT Scraper for handling more generic data tasks. This powerful tool will allow us to support a broader range of data extraction needs, making Webtap even more versatile. 🔄

What's Next

There's still a lot of work ahead, but I believe we are in an excellent position compared to other AI-based competitors.

Choosing Apify as the backend for our AI web scraper has proven to be a wise decision. Companies increasingly favor quality over quantity of data, and building on top of Apify has enabled us to deliver just that. This strategic choice not only enhances our current capabilities but also positions us with a strong competitive advantage for the long term. 🏆

The journey is just beginning, and the future looks incredibly promising 🌟