Hello followers! Today, let’s dive into how AI startups are making waves in India, especially Perplexity’s exciting journey. While OpenAI continues to dominate in the U.S., Perplexity is quietly expanding its reach into the Indian market to stay competitive in this fast-evolving AI landscape.

Perplexity, a startup focusing on AI-powered search, is rapidly growing its user base in India, the world’s second-largest internet market. Recently, they teamed up with Bharti Airtel, India’s second-biggest telecom provider, to give away a free year of Perplexity Pro—worth $200—to all of Airtel’s 360 million customers. This exclusive deal means no other Indian telco can offer this service for free, giving Perplexity a significant edge.

Besides Airtel, Perplexity has inked partnership deals with over 25 telecom companies globally, including SoftBank in Japan and SK Telecom in South Korea. The reason? India’s massive population offers unmatched growth potential, and the startup is already seeing remarkable success there. In Q2, India downloads of Perplexity skyrocketed by 600% YoY to 2.8 million, outpacing even ChatGPT, which only grew by 587%. Monthly active users in India for Perplexity also increased 640% compared to last year.

Perplexity’s strategy doesn’t stop there. They’ve previously partnered with Indian fintech giant Paytm, integrating their AI search into the Paytm app, which boasts over 500 million downloads and processes huge transaction volumes. The CEO, Aravind Srinivas, even announced plans to hire locally and invested $1 million into Indian AI initiatives, demonstrating their commitment to the market.

Despite these gains, monetization remains a challenge. While ChatGPT’s revenue skyrocketed, Perplexity’s revenue in India is still modest, with a 300% growth to $8 million in Q2. They are focusing on expanding their subscriber base through lucrative deals like Airtel’s, which could boost long-term revenue, especially as the Indian market is highly price-sensitive but tech-savvy. All eyes are on whether Perplexity can convert its growing user base into sustainable profits.