“AI is helping to create a better internet, but publishers still need to get paid,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said as the company rolled out a new $42.5 million pool to pay publishers when their content shows up in its AI-powered search results.
The problem is not whether publishers should get paid. The problem is how. And here, Perplexity is avoiding the only sustainable solution, that is, straightforward licensing of content. This is a model its rivals are already embracing.
Instead, the $18 billion startup is experimenting with a subscription service called Comet Plus, where users pay $5 a month and publishers receive 80% of the revenue. Payouts occur when Comet’s AI browser cites an article, when its assistant reads a page on a user’s behalf, or when a user actually clicks through. The catch is obvious. This entire revenue-sharing model depends on Comet gaining traction with users. And that’s an enormous gamble. One that explains why, just last month, Perplexity made headlines with a $34.5 billion bid to buy Google Chrome, the world’s most widely used browser. “We have yet to hear back from Google,” Srinivas quipped. The logic behind that bid, unserious or not, is: without users, Comet Plus has no revenue to share.
