Jeff Bezos Invests in Google Competitor Harnessing AI To Disrupt Internet Search

Jeff Bezos, the Executive chairman and co-founder of Amazon.com Inc AMZN, has invested in Perplexity, an AI startup targeting Alphabet Inc‘s Google GOOGL GOOG monopoly over internet searches.

What Happened: Perplexity aims to disrupt the web search market currently dominated by Google, reported The Wall Street Journal. The AI-based platform provides direct, concise answers to users’ queries, unlike the traditional approach of presenting webpage links.

Since its inception less than two years ago, Perplexity has gained roughly 10 million monthly users. This impressive growth and novel search approach resulted in a $74 million funding round, spearheaded by Jeff Bezos and Institutional Venture Partners. This financial injection is one of the most substantial in recent years for a web search startup, raising Perplexity’s valuation to $520 million, as stated by CEO Aravind Srinivas.

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Despite currently serving only a fraction of Google’s user base, Perplexity has seen a significant uptake among tech enthusiasts open to trying groundbreaking services. The startup’s website and mobile applications reported a surge to 53 million visits in November 2023, a drastic increase from the 2.2 million visits in December 2022.

However, the journey ahead is fraught with challenges. Perplexity will be competing against Google, a $1.7 trillion behemoth, known for its investment of several billions in providing language-specific query responses.

Despite these hurdles, Perplexity is committed to expanding its user base, studying search patterns, reducing costs, and potentially incorporating ads in the future.

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