Perplexity sees India as a shortcut in its race in opposition to OpenAI

Whereas OpenAI has cemented its lead within the U.S., Perplexity is taking a unique route — quietly increasing into India to compete within the subsequent part of AI adoption. The search-focused AI startup is quickly including hundreds of thousands of customers on the planet’s second-largest web and smartphone market, positioning itself for mass-market scale.

This week, Perplexity partnered with Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator after Reliance Jio, to supply a free 12-month Perplexity Professional subscription — usually value $200 — to all 360 million Airtel subscribers. Airtel confirmed to TechCrunch that the deal is unique, which means no different telco within the nation can supply Perplexity’s companies, together with free entry, to their subscribers.

The Airtel partnership is one in all Perplexity’s most important strikes but in a worldwide growth technique that features partnerships with greater than 25 telcos globally, together with these not too long ago introduced with SoftBank in Japan and SK Telecom in South Korea. It comes right down to quantity. India, the world’s most populous nation, brings a mass market that the San Francisco-based startup is not going to discover in different geographies.

Perplexity is already gaining main traction within the nation. In Q2, Perplexity’s downloads in India surged 600% year-over-year to 2.8 million, in keeping with Sensor Tower information shared completely with TechCrunch. As compared, OpenAI’s ChatGPT noticed a 587% enhance, reaching 46.7 million downloads in the identical interval.

The expansion pattern prolonged to energetic customers as properly: Perplexity’s month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) in India elevated by 640% year-over-year in Q2, whereas ChatGPT’s MAUs grew by 350%. India was additionally the biggest market by MAUs for Perplexity within the final quarter, per Sensor Tower. Nevertheless, ChatGPT maintained a big lead in absolute numbers, with 19.8 million MAUs versus 3.7 million for Perplexity.

Constructing on earlier partnerships, Perplexity has been working to leverage India’s person base to leapfrog Western markets, the place OpenAI dominates paid subscribers. Earlier this 12 months, Perplexity partnered with the Indian fintech big Paytm to supply entry to its AI-powered search by means of the Paytm app, which has over 500 million downloads and is among the many top-three apps on the Indian authorities’s Unified Fee Interface community, processing over 1.2 billion transactions value over ₹1,34,000 crores (roughly $15.6 billion).

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has additionally taken direct steps to broaden in India. In January, he introduced plans to rent an Indian govt within the nation, which he later placed on maintain after receiving an “overwhelming” response. He additional introduced a $1 million funding and a dedication of 5 hours every week of his time to a bunch constructing AI in India.

The startup has additionally internally mentioned providing its AI search engine to Indian college students to develop its attain, sources instructed TechCrunch.

One cause Perplexity views India as a key progress market is the comparatively restricted variety of native AI startups, notably within the AI search house. On the identical time, the nation has a big and energetic base of tech-savvy customers — a incontrovertible fact that has even prompted Perplexity’s archrival, Google, to launch AI-powered search options like AI Mode and AI Overviews in India forward of many different markets.

Monetizing that enormous person base stays a problem. Perplexity nonetheless lags far behind ChatGPT globally by way of income, whilst each supply the identical $20-per-month beginning worth. In Q2, ChatGPT’s in-app buy income worldwide surged 731% year-over-year to $773 million, whereas Perplexity noticed a 300% enhance, reaching $8 million, per Sensor Tower.

The income problem is especially acute in India, the place shoppers are notoriously price-sensitive. Nonetheless, there are promising indicators. ChatGPT noticed an 800% year-over-year enhance in in-app purchases to $9 million within the nation in Q2. Perplexity has not generated any notable in-app income from India, however the startup has room to broaden its paid subscriber base by means of India. Offers just like the one with Airtel might assist Perplexity successfully enhance its subscriber base, not less than within the quick time period.

Strategic partnerships in markets like India might assist Perplexity catch the attention of traders who worth person progress and geographic diversification. However to show that spotlight into long-term backing, the startup might want to present that it could convert its increasing person base into income.

Srinivas didn’t reply to requests for remark.