Despite these new features, Perplexity does not plan to monetize its shopping feature, instead focusing on growing the number of search queries. The company's main revenue source remains its ads business. Perplexity is also launching its Perplexity Merchant program, which allows large retailers to share their product specifications with the platform. However, the company has recently faced lawsuits from The Wall Street Journal and New York Post for copyright infringement and a cease-and-desist letter from The New York Times.
Key takeaways:
- Perplexity has launched an AI-driven ecommerce feature, ‘Buy with Pro,’ allowing U.S. Pro users to purchase items directly from the app and offering free shipping.
- The startup is integrating Shopify’s API on its platform to enhance its ecommerce experience, gaining access to Shopify’s product catalog and merchants.
- Perplexity is also launching a ‘Snap to Shop’ feature, a visual search tool that allows users to snap pictures of products and upload them to Perplexity, which will then surface relevant items based on the image.
- Perplexity is facing legal challenges from The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and The New York Times, who accuse the startup of copyright infringement and unauthorized use of content.