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Perplexity’s free AI offer left it with millions more users in India
Perplexity's strategic partnership with Indian telecom giant Airtel to offer free premium subscriptions has yielded significant long-term results. Despite a sharp drop in new downloads after the promotional period ended, the company retained a substantial user base and saw revenue increase by over 60% as early users transitioned from free access to paid plans. This experiment serves as an early validation for the industry strategy of using subsidies to acquire scale in price-sensitive markets like India before monetizing that audience.