AI search engine Perplexity has announced that it will start showing ads this week as advertisers look for ways to reach audiences through chatbots.
Sponsored content will appear as follow-up questions next to a generated answer to a user's question and “will not be influenced by advertisers,” the company said in a statement.
“Answers to Sponsored Questions will be generated by our technology, and not written or edited by the brands sponsoring the questions,” Perplexity said, adding that such format will protect “the utility, accuracy, and objectivity of answers.”
Sponsored content will be marked as such and will initially be visible only to users in the US. Perplexity cited companies such as Indeed, Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann, and PMG as its first advertisers.
Jeff Bezos, the owner of Whole Foods Market parent company Amazon, is among Perplexity’s investors, alongside companies like Nvidia and Databricks.
The company said that its approach will avoid duplicating the practices of the SEO industry, where brands are implementing “arbitrary tactics” to improve their rankings on search engines.
“We would rather give brands a transparent way to advertise through Perplexity that – rather than attempting to manipulate answers – encourages users to express their curiosity about a brand,” it said.
Perplexity said that subscriptions alone were not enough to generate enough money and that advertising is “the best way to ensure a steady and scalable revenue stream.”
While its advertising practices may evolve, the company said they will be based on two principles that “will always remain true” – providing a trusted service and never sharing users' personal information with advertisers.
Rival Google is also experimenting with ads on its AI-powered search experience. In contrast, OpenAI launched its AI-powered search tool ChatGPT Search without ads.
Perplexity was founded in 2022 and reached a $3 billion valuation this year. In the first three months of 2024, it had reached 15 million monthly users.
It has faced legal challenges for allegedly using copyrighted material, with a lawsuit from Ruper Murdoch’s Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, and a “cease and desist” notice from The New York Times.
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