AI Search App Perplexity to Share Ad Revenue With News Publishers

AI search application Perplexity will share ad revenue with news publishers when their articles appear in results from user searches, the startup has confirmed.

Last week, Perplexity launched the Publishers’ Program to ensure news publishers receive proper credit and financial support when their content features its app’s search results.

Businesses can pay to have their content featured in new ad spots around the related follow-up feature on the app. Whenever those ads generate revenue from an interaction referencing a publisher's content, the publisher will earn a share.

Publishers will also have access to content performance analytics on Perplexity as part of the company’s collaboration with ScalePost.ai, a platform offering AI analytics for publishers.

Publishers who join the program will receive not only but also free access to Perplexity's API. This access will allow them to build their own custom answer engines for their websites. All staff =will also have free access to the premium enterprise version for one year.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said the company structured the program to ensure it has a scalable and sustainable way to align incentives for all parties. 

“We appreciate the publishers who have joined us for this program and provided us with valuable feedback about how it should operate,” Srinivas said. “We have always believed that we can build a system where the whole Internet wins, and this is just the first step.”

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The launch of the Publishers’ Program marks the first time the AI search app will feature ads. The startup previously relied on subscriptions for its premium version, which costs $20 a month and provided subscribers access to improved AI searches.

The upcoming update will include ads displayed in related searches. For instance, if a user is looking for restaurants in their city, a chain can pay to have its ad featured in the related search section. Clicking on the ad will generate revenue for both the app and the publishers whose content is featured in the search results.

Time, Fortune, Entrepreneur and WordPress are among the early publishers set to benefit.

Perplexity said it’s also considering working with publishers to offer bundled subscriptions, where users could pay a flat fee for both Perplexity Pro and subscriptions to participating publishers. 

“We are proud to join Perplexity's Publishers’ Program as a launch partner to continue to expand access to reliable information and engage audiences in new ways," said Mark Howard, Time’s chief operating officer.

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The update comes as Perplexity’s stock continues to rise. 

In April, its value soared to $1 billion after securing new capital from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia and former Tesla AI director turned AI educator Andrej Karpathy.

Perplexity also recently partnered with SoftBank to bring its AI-powered search application to new users.

The AI search app could have a new rival, however, as OpenAI recently announced it’s testing SearchGPT: A new search feature for ChatGPT that allows users to search the web using conversational, natural language.