Perplexity, an AI search engine with Google-rivaling ambitions that announced a strategic partnership with SoftBank in April, is now using the deal to expand its user base and data touchpoints in SoftBank's domestic market. Starting June 19, SoftBank and its two mobile operators, Y!mobile (SoftBank's mobile phone operator) and LINEMO (SoftBank's low-cost mobile network operator), will offer a free one-year subscription to Perplexity's premium tier, Perplexity Pro.
The move underscores Perplexity's international ambitions and focus on generating revenue from paying customers, but also the motivations of companies such as mobile operators.
It may not have the in-house team or the desire (or funding) to build its own AI models and services on top of them. But with AI buzz still at a fever pitch, partnering with an AI company is one way to attract more users interested in using AI. It's also, potentially, a way to gain more customers and revenue. And finally, it gives SoftBank a chance to collaborate with Perplexity on other AI-powered services (similar in that respect to the deals that companies like Spotify struck with mobile carriers in their early days to grow their premium user base).
SoftBank isn't the only telecommunications carrier partnering with Perplexity: the startup also signed a partnership agreement with Germany's Deutsche Telekom in April 2024, which was announced at the same time as the SoftBank deal.
It's not clear whether either carrier will invest in Perplexity in the deal, but SoftBank has made AI a big focus of its ambitions.
The Vision Fund has been investigating a number of AI startups and its name has been mentioned in several potential deals (including OpenAI and Mistral, though it has not yet formally invested in either). Separately, SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son is considering setting up a $100 billion AI chip venture, and SoftBank has, perhaps not coincidentally, been linked as a potential buyer for Britain's Graphcore.
In parallel, SoftBank's Japan business last year launched its own Japanese large-scale language model venture, SB Intuitions.
It's not clear how far along that is, as many of the more ambitious and forward-thinking LLM players have begun building their own models across different language groups. In any case, SoftBank notes that at Perplexity's Pro level, users have the option to select any LLM to power their search queries.
The San Francisco-based startup announced in April that it had closed a $62.7 million funding round, bringing its valuation to $1 billion, double what it had three months earlier. TechCrunch also reported that the company is currently raising at least $250 million in additional funding at a valuation of $2.5 billion to $3 billion. Its current investor list includes Bezos Expeditions, IVP, NEA, Sequoia, Nvidia, Databricks, and many other big names.
Perplexity, which can be used in a web browser or application, provides answers based on the latest web searches. Perplexity has come under fire from publishers for how it credits (and sometimes doesn't credit) work in answers. The startup says it's working on revenue-sharing agreements.
Perplexity Pro, a subscription-based service, offers a more advanced version of Perplexity, including the ability to freely choose the latest large-scale language models (LLMs) to enjoy more comprehensive information retrieval and data processing capabilities. In addition, the upgraded version of Perplexity also offers the ability to generate high-quality images in different styles based on search history, and an AI profile function to customize search results and support chat-based tools.
The current price for the iOS version of the app is 3,000 yen per month or 30,000 yen per year. The price for the web version is 20 dollars per month or 200 dollars per year as of the same date.