With inputs from Prabhanu Kumar Das
An Airtel press release dated July 17 announced that Bharti Airtel has partnered with Perplexity to offer a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription to its user base. Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that delivers cited answers to user queries. The subscription to Perplexity Pro, which the press release says is priced at Rs 17,000, is available to virtually every Airtel user.
For context, the Pro subscription offers more daily searches, access to AI models like Claude and GPT 4.1 for queries, multiple research tools, image generation, file uploads, and access to Perplexity Labs. In contrast, the free standard model of Perplexity offers a limited number of daily searches with access to only core Perplexity functionality.
Nikhil’s Take
MediaNama Founder Nikhil Pahwa weighed in on this development, remarking, “Perplexity is looking to ramp up its user base as quickly as it can. India is mostly a prepaid market. While this partnership with Airtel gives Pro for free, for the past many months there has been something of what might be a guerrilla marketing exercise mimicking piracy: on Reddit groups access to Perplexity Pro is being sold for $10 for the year (I’ve bought this, so I know), even though the press release says ₹17,000 per year ($200).
“At this point in time, it’s all about increasing adoption for Perplexity, which isn’t the household name that Google’s Gemini is or ChatGPT has become, nor does it have the distribution of a Meta AI on WhatsApp. Internet businesses scale first, monetise later, and Pro is a better product with lower usage limits than the regular Perplexity.”
– Nikhil Pahwa, MediaNama Founder-Editor
He further stated: “There’s no market, better in India for increasing (inflating?) your user base. Onboarding new users to Pro via Airtel should not only help improve stickiness and usage, but more importantly, ensure Perplexity remains in the game and can raise more money. It has added $2 billion to its valuation (up to $15 billion) in just the last couple of months. For Airtel, this is a value add for its user base, though it doesn’t really need it. More importantly, as a brand that positions itself as a premium offering, this is more about the right announcement that furthers that positioning. A win-win for Perplexity and Airtel.”
Internet Usage And AI In India: What The Numbers Say
Interestingly, rural India (55%) has more internet users than the rest of the country, as per an Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) report titled ‘Internet In India 2024’. Also, one in every five internet users in India (20%) makes use of voice-based commands to access the internet.
Elsewhere, the report highlights how AI is gaining popularity in the country, both within urban centres and rural regions. About 49% of rural users revealed that they enjoy using AI features across different platforms. Meanwhile, 33% of these users said that AI tools make them more productive and efficient.
However, everything is not hunky-dory when it comes to AI usage in rural India, as 51% of rural users still find it difficult to use AI tools or interact with them, and 29% do not trust AI bots and their responses.
Moreover, there are those who do not use the internet altogether. Over the years, non-internet users have been declining in the country, but even then, 41% of India’s population does not access the internet, says the report.
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Notably, 27% of rural respondents revealed that they are simply not interested in accessing the internet. Meanwhile, 25% of these respondents said that they are not aware of the internet’s benefits
Why It Matters
Partnering up with Airtel to offer a free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro seems like a wise move by Perplexity AI. Airtel is one of the big three telecom operators in the country, and harnessing its user base might prove beneficial for Perplexity’s foothold in the country.
At the same time, one must remember that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the most popular AI chatbot in India by far. For context, ChatGPT users in India (13.5%) are more than its US users (8.9%), according to an AI trends report.
Meanwhile, Google is also expanding its reach in the Indian market. In its latest move, the tech giant is offering eligible students a free one-year subscription to a Google AI Pro plan to assist them with their studies. Recently, Google has confirmed its Android-ChromeOS merger plan to boost user experience, making way for easier rollouts of new AI features.
Therefore, Perplexity AI must not take anything for granted, as the AI market in India will likely witness dynamism in terms of market dominance as new AI players enter and existing ones adapt and evolve.
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