{"id":14010,"date":"2025-07-18T09:05:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T09:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=14010"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:05:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T09:05:38","slug":"perplexity-targets-india-in-bid-to-rival-openais-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=14010","title":{"rendered":"Perplexity targets India in bid to rival OpenAI\u2019s dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Perplexity, an AI startup aiming to challenge OpenAI\u2019s dominance, is targeting India as a key market.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which has gained significant traction in the US, is now focusing on India, the second-largest internet and smartphone market globally, for expansion.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Perplexity announced a major partnership with Bharti Airtel, India\u2019s second-largest telecom operator. The deal offers 360 million Airtel subscribers a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription, valued at $200. This move is one of the startup\u2019s biggest yet, aiming to expand its user base in India.<\/p>\n<p>Perplexity\u2019s growth in India has been impressive. In Q2, the startup saw a 600% increase in downloads, reaching 2.8 million, as reported by TechCrunch.<\/p>\n<p>Airtel has partnered with @perplexity_ai to offer a 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription, free of cost, to all Airtel users.<\/p>\n<p>This brings a powerful, real-time knowledge tool into the hands of millions across India, enabling them to navigate the digital world and emerging GenAI\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/TuxeetxUJU<br \/>\n\u2014 Bharti Airtel (@airtelnews) July 17, 2025<\/p>\n<p>While OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT also grew significantly with a 587% rise to 46.7 million downloads, Perplexity\u2019s growth indicates strong momentum. Its monthly active users (MAUs) in India grew 640% year-over-year, outpacing ChatGPT\u2019s 350% growth.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, ChatGPT maintains a lead with 19.8 million MAUs compared to Perplexity\u2019s 3.7 million.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to its partnership with Airtel, Perplexity has collaborated with Paytm, one of India\u2019s largest fintech platforms, to offer its AI-powered search engine to millions of users. CEO Aravind Srinivas has pledged $1 million to support AI development in India, underlining the company\u2019s commitment to the market.<\/p>\n<p>While India presents significant opportunities, Perplexity faces challenges in monetising its user base. OpenAI\u2019s in-app purchase revenue surged to $773 million in Q2, while Perplexity saw a 300% increase, reaching $8 million.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge is particularly acute in India, where consumers are highly price-sensitive.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these hurdles, the exclusive Airtel partnership could help Perplexity expand its paid subscriber base in India.<\/p>\n<p>The market offers long-term growth potential, especially if Perplexity can convert its large user base into paying customers.<\/p>\n<p>Perplexity\u2019s focus on India is part of a broader strategy to compete with OpenAI globally. However, to secure investor backing, the startup will need to prove it can turn user growth into sustainable revenue.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perplexity, an AI startup aiming to challenge OpenAI\u2019s dominance, is targeting India as a key market. The company, which has gained significant traction in the US, is now focusing on India, the second-largest internet and smartphone market globally, for expansion. This week, Perplexity announced a major partnership with Bharti Airtel, India\u2019s second-largest telecom operator. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}