Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the AI-powered search engine currently performs 100 million queries every week. That's an estimated 400 million queries per month, up from 250 million queries in July.
Perplexity's meteoric rise came as the company teased e-commerce features, including the ability for subscribers of its Perplexity Pro service to make purchases with one click. Perplexity is also reportedly planning a new advertising model. According to the Financial Times, the company is in talks with brands including Nike and Marriott for sponsored queries.
One of the complications for Perplexity is its legal battles with publishers. News Corp's Dow Jones and the NY Post sued Perplexity over what they called “content theft politics.” Many other news sites have expressed concern about Perplexity's close copying of their content, and just last week, the New York Times issued a cease-and-desist letter to the startup.
Perplexity is said to be in talks to raise about $500 million at a valuation of $8 billion.