Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, says that the AI-powered search engine is now performing 100 million queries each week. Extrapolated out to a month, that’s roughly 400 million queries — up from 250 million queries in July.
Perplexity’s rapid rise comes as the company teases ecommerce features, including the ability for subscribers to its Perplexity Pro service to make one-click purchases. Perplexity is also reportedly planning a new ad model. According to The Financial Times, it’s in talks with brands including Nike and Marriott for sponsored queries.
One thorn in Perplexity’s side is its legal tussles with publishers. News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post have sued Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news sites have expressed concerns that Perplexity closely replicates their content — just last week, The New York Times sent the startup a cease and desist.
Perplexity is said to be in talks to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation.