Perplexity Partners with Bharti Airtel to Give 360 Million Users Free $200 Pro Subscriptions in Major India Push
Summary
AI search startup Perplexity partners with telecom giant Bharti Airtel to offer free $200 Pro subscriptions to 360 million users in India, where downloads have surged 600% year-over-year as the company aggressively expands into its largest market by user count.
Key Points
- Perplexity partners with Bharti Airtel to offer free 12-month Pro subscriptions worth $200 to all 360 million subscribers in an exclusive deal as part of its India expansion strategy
- Perplexity's downloads in India surge 600% year-over-year to 2.8 million in Q2 with monthly active users growing 640%, making India its largest market by users despite ChatGPT maintaining higher absolute numbers
- The AI search startup views India as a key growth opportunity due to limited local AI competition and a large tech-savvy user base, though monetization remains challenging with only $8 million global revenue versus ChatGPT's $773 million