Perplexity AI intends to integrate advertisements into its application by the fourth quarter, according to a report from CNBC. The development coincides with the company facing accusations of plagiarizing content from several prominent media firms.
Accusations of Content Plagiarism
Major media outlets such as Forbes and Wired have accused the company of replicating their articles. There have also been accusations of broader plagiarism by various outlets. Forbes spotted a duplicated piece from its website on Perplexity, identified only by a small “F” icon. Wired reported that an IP address, suspected to be associated with Perplexity, accessed its company's sites more than 800 times over three months. In response, the company has updated its Pages feature to improve source citations and properly attribute original authors.
In an effort to alleviate these issues and benefit content creators, Perplexity AI has introduced a revenue-sharing program. The initiative allows publishers to earn from citations in Perplexity's search outputs.
Partnerships include notable media such as Fortune, Time, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel, and WordPress. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity's chief business officer, stated that publishers will receive a share of the revenue when multiple articles from the same source are cited in a single response. The company aims to bring 30 publishers on board by the end of the year.
Advertising Strategy and Market Impact
Perplexity AI's advertising approach will employ a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model, with rates surpassing $50 per thousand impressions. The rates are significantly above the average CPM for desktop and mobile video display ads, which stand at around $2.50 and $11.10, respectively. The company's pitch deck mentions key advertising categories like technology, health, entertainment, finance, and food. Advertisers will have opportunities to sponsor related queries and place ads alongside Perplexity's answers.
The Perplexity app has been downloaded more than 2 million times, seeing 230 million users per month and an eightfold increase in U.S. queries in the past year. According to its pitch deck, over 80% of the app's users have an undergraduate degree. In April, the startup's valuation exceeded $1 billion following a new funding round, doubling its previous valuation. However, this rapid ascent has also focused attention on its practices regarding content sourcing.
