While OpenAI has cemented its lead in the U.S., Perplexity is taking a different route — quietly expanding into India to compete in the next phase of AI adoption. The search-focused AI startup is rapidly adding millions of users in the world’s second-largest internet and smartphone market, positioning itself for mass-market scale.
This week, Perplexity partnered with Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator after Reliance Jio, to offer a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription — normally worth $200 — to all 360 million Airtel subscribers. Airtel confirmed to TechCrunch that the deal is exclusive, meaning no other telco in the country can offer Perplexity’s services, including free access, to their subscribers.
The Airtel partnership is one of Perplexity’s most significant moves yet in a global expansion strategy that includes partnerships with more than 25 telcos globally, including those recently announced with SoftBank in Japan and SK Telecom in South Korea. It comes down to volume. India, the world’s most populous country, brings a mass market that the San Francisco-based startup will not find in other geographies.
Perplexity is already gaining major traction in the country. In Q2, Perplexity’s downloads in India surged 600% year-over-year to 2.8 million, according to Sensor Tower data shared exclusively with TechCrunch. In comparison, OpenAI’s ChatGPT saw a 587% increase, reaching 46.7 million downloads in the same period.
The growth trend extended to active users as well: Perplexity’s monthly active users (MAUs) in India increased by 640% year-over-year in Q2, while ChatGPT’s MAUs grew by 350%. India was also the largest market by MAUs for Perplexity in the last quarter, per Sensor Tower. However, ChatGPT maintained a significant lead in absolute numbers, with 19.8 million MAUs versus 3.7 million for Perplexity.
Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
Building on earlier partnerships, Perplexity has been working to leverage India’s user base to leapfrog Western markets, where OpenAI dominates paid subscribers. Earlier this year, Perplexity partnered with the Indian fintech giant Paytm to offer access to its AI-powered search through the Paytm app, which has over 500 million downloads and is among the top-three apps on the Indian government’s Unified Payment Interface network, processing over 1.2 billion transactions worth over ₹1,34,000 crores (approximately $15.6 billion).
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has also taken direct steps to expand in India. In January, he announced plans to hire an Indian executive in the country, which he later put on hold after receiving an “overwhelming” response. He further announced a $1 million investment and a commitment of five hours a week of his time to a group building AI in India.
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Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
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