AI startup Perplexity is fast becoming a potential challenger to Google’s monopoly in the search engine market. Its unique blend of Wikipedia’s massive info bank and ChatGPT’s fluid conversational mechanics seems to be an appealing deviation from the norm. This unique data search approach bypasses SEO clutter, delivering precise answers to user queries.
Launched by Aravind Srinivas and Denis Yarats in August 2022, Perplexity raised $3.1 million in seed funding with the backing of a prominent New York University professor. The founders, known for their machine learning and artificial intelligence work, aim to use predictive analytics to enhance business operations. Given this promising beginning, it’s clear that Perplexity is off to a running start.
The AI-driven search engine is already being embraced by about 15 million users, owing to its ability to deliver concise, in-depth responses to questions. It leverages a host of linguistic models, including Anthropic’s, OpenAI’s GPT3.5 and GPT-4, along with open-source platforms like Meta’s Llama and Mistral’s Mixtral. Perplexity respects user privacy, and does not store personal data, positioning itself as a safe, reliable tool.
This startup, valued at $1 billion, secured $102 million from VC firms in under two years.
Perplexity’s promising emergence in the search engine market
Investors include Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO; Bob Muglia, ex-Microsoft President; and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Despite its young operational stint, Perplexity has clearly caught the attention of the tech industry behemoths.
Perplexity’s diverse user base includes key figures from the tech industry. The company provides an enhanced features plan, costing $20 a month, which roughly 100,000 subscribers are currently using.
Despite such robust growth and impressive backing, critics argue that Google’s proven track record in indexing and web scraping gives it a competitive edge. Nonetheless, the entry of Perplexity into the market suggests a possible disruption in the search engine sector. As each competitor continues to advance their tech and innovation, only time will tell who will reign supreme.
