Perplexity has paused accepting new advertisers because it rethinks how adverts match into its AI search expertise, signaling a change in its monetization push.
At Promoting Week in New York Metropolis, Jessica Chan, head of writer partnerships at Perplexity, mentioned that the corporate is just not “taking any new advertisers,” and that adverts aren’t at present on the roadmap for Perplexity’s AI browser, Comet.
The transfer comes after the August departure of advert gross sales head Taz Patel, signaling a shift from Perplexity’s earlier plan to scale its advert enterprise past the U.S. In December, Perplexity added The Independent, LA Times, and Blavity to its Perplexity’s Writer Program that pays publishers when content material seems subsequent to adverts. On the time, Chan cited worldwide partnerships as key to Perplexity’s development.
Perplexity launched its advert providing last year and commenced testing campaigns with brands together with Certainly, PMG, Common McCann, and Entire Meals Market. These early campaigns let manufacturers sponsor follow-up questions in search outcomes.
“That also exists at this time, however we didn’t need to inundate our consumer expertise with a ton of adverts in a single day,” Chan mentioned in the course of the panel. “We’re persevering with to scale it very thoughtfully and methodically—in all probability not on the scale all people’s hoping for.”
She additionally famous that manufacturers are rethinking tips on how to spend their budgets. Chan mentioned many advertisers are shifting away from performance-focused, conventional search and in direction of top-of-funnel model consciousness—an space Perplexity might pursue down the road.
Perplexity didn’t reply to request for extra remark past Chan’s feedback at Promoting Week.
Promoting seems to make up solely a small portion of Perplexity’s income. Final yr, the corporate generated simply $20,000 in advert income out of $34 million in complete income, based on The Information.
As Perplexity reassesses its adverts ambitions, questions stay about how a lot income its mannequin is definitely driving for publishers.
