Perplexity adds 14+ new publishers to its revenue-sharing program

Perplexity AI has announced an expansion of its publisher revenue-sharing program. The company added over a dozen new partners across multiple regions.

The new partners include media outlets such as The Independent, Los Angeles Times, AdWeek, Mexico News Daily, and MediaLab. These partners span regions like the UK, Japan, Spain, and Latin America, marking Perplexity’s first partnerships in these areas. The platform says it will include more partners in the coming weeks.

The platform launched the revenue-sharing program in July. The initiative allows media outlets to earn ad revenue when their content appears with ads on Perplexity’s AI-powered search results. Early participants in the program include TIME, Fortune, and Der Spiegel.

Benefits for participating publishers

As part of the partnership, publishers will receive a share of ad revenue generated from their content. Partners can also access Perplexity’s APIs and developer support to create custom features. 

The platform also said they will gain access to content performance data and trends as well as free Perplexity Enterprise Pro accounts for a year.

Jessica Chan, Head of Publisher Partnerships at Perplexity, said, “Perplexity’s first-of-its-kind publisher program reimagines how technology companies and news publishers collaborate.” 

Addressing publisher concerns

The expansion follows criticism from publishers like The New York Times, Forbes, and Wired. These media outlets have raised concerns about Perplexity AI's unauthorized use of their content. In October, The New York Times issued a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Perplexity of accessing its content without consent.

Chan emphasized the importance of collaboration, stating,  “We would not be able to serve factual, valuable answers without news organizations continuing to report on different topics.”

It also comes when publishers are expressing concerns about how AI-generated summaries impact their traffic. The New York Times and Condé Nast, have opted out of Apple’s AI training tool, Applebot-Extended.

Perplexity’s competion with OpenAI and Google

Perplexity AI faces competition from rivals such as ChatGPT and Google. OpenAI has partnered with outlets such as The Atlantic and Condé Nast to bring content into its AI tools. However, unlike Perplexity, the platform said it will not share ad revenue from its search AI tool, SearchGPT. OpenAI allows publishers to manage how their content appears in search results and publishers can also opt out of its web crawler.  

Perplexity has been seeking ways to expand its ads offering to generate revenue. It began testing ads in the U.S. market. Google has also piloted ads in AI Overviews for mobile users in the U.S.

OpenAI is yet to introduce ads to its products but it may be considering it. In a recent interview, OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, said the company has no active plans to bring ads to the platform. 

Recently, Perplexity added an in-app shopping feature for U.S.Pro users. Reports also suggest the company is seeking a $500 million funding round, aiming for a $9 billion valuation.

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