Perplexity, a two-year-old search engine, utilizes AI to synthesize answers from information gathered from various online sources, including publishers, when users input questions. The company announced its plan to launch an advertising platform at the end of September called the Perplexity Publishers’ Program, which will share revenue with select partners such as TIME, Fortune, and Der Spiegel. This initiative comes after the startup, supported by investors like Jeff Bezos and NVIDIA, faced criticism for scraping content without permission. Despite comparisons to Google, Perplexity plans to compensate publishers each time their content is used in AI-generated answers, offering a percentage of ad revenue. While concerns remain about the impact on traffic and revenue for publishers, Perplexity aims to provide a new revenue stream without the need for large upfront payments to publishers. The company is venturing into online advertising dominated by giants like Google and Meta, but faces challenges in establishing a successful ads business. Despite recent controversies, Perplexity highlights the importance of a long-term commitment to publishers and ongoing discussions to address concerns and build partnerships with content creators.
