Aravind Srinivas

So we do not have to beat them, neither do we have to take them on. In fact, I feel the primary difference of Perplexity from other startups that have explicitly laid out that they're taking on Google is that we never even try to play Google at their own game.

If you're just trying to take on Google by building another 10 blue link search engine and with some other differentiation, which could be privacy or no ads or something like that, it's not enough. And it's very hard to make a real difference in just making a better 10 blue link search engine than Google, because they have basically nailed this game for like 20 years.

If you're just trying to take on Google by building another 10 blue link search engine and with some other differentiation, which could be privacy or no ads or something like that, it's not enough. And it's very hard to make a real difference in just making a better 10 blue link search engine than Google, because they have basically nailed this game for like 20 years.

If you're just trying to take on Google by building another 10 blue link search engine and with some other differentiation, which could be privacy or no ads or something like that, it's not enough. And it's very hard to make a real difference in just making a better 10 blue link search engine than Google, because they have basically nailed this game for like 20 years.

So the disruption comes from rethinking the whole UI itself. Why do we need links to be the prominent, occupying the prominent real estate of the search engine UI? Flip that.

So the disruption comes from rethinking the whole UI itself. Why do we need links to be the prominent, occupying the prominent real estate of the search engine UI? Flip that.

So the disruption comes from rethinking the whole UI itself. Why do we need links to be the prominent, occupying the prominent real estate of the search engine UI? Flip that.

In fact, when we first rolled out Perplexity, there was a healthy debate about whether we should still show the link as a side panel or something, because there might be cases where the answer is not good enough or the answer hallucinates, right? And so people are like, you know, you still have to show the link so that people can still go and click on them and read. I said, no.

In fact, when we first rolled out Perplexity, there was a healthy debate about whether we should still show the link as a side panel or something, because there might be cases where the answer is not good enough or the answer hallucinates, right? And so people are like, you know, you still have to show the link so that people can still go and click on them and read. I said, no.

In fact, when we first rolled out Perplexity, there was a healthy debate about whether we should still show the link as a side panel or something, because there might be cases where the answer is not good enough or the answer hallucinates, right? And so people are like, you know, you still have to show the link so that people can still go and click on them and read. I said, no.

And that was like, okay, then you're gonna have like erroneous answers and sometimes the answer is not even the right UI. I might wanna explore. Sure, that's okay. You still go to Google and do that. We are betting on something that will improve over time. You know, the models will get better, smarter, cheaper, more efficient.

And that was like, okay, then you're gonna have like erroneous answers and sometimes the answer is not even the right UI. I might wanna explore. Sure, that's okay. You still go to Google and do that. We are betting on something that will improve over time. You know, the models will get better, smarter, cheaper, more efficient.

And that was like, okay, then you're gonna have like erroneous answers and sometimes the answer is not even the right UI. I might wanna explore. Sure, that's okay. You still go to Google and do that. We are betting on something that will improve over time. You know, the models will get better, smarter, cheaper, more efficient.

Our index will get fresher, more up-to-date contents, more detailed snippets. And all of these, the hallucinations will drop exponentially. Of course, there's still gonna be a long tail of hallucinations. Like you can always find some queries that perplexity is hallucinating on, but it'll get harder and harder to find those queries.

Our index will get fresher, more up-to-date contents, more detailed snippets. And all of these, the hallucinations will drop exponentially. Of course, there's still gonna be a long tail of hallucinations. Like you can always find some queries that perplexity is hallucinating on, but it'll get harder and harder to find those queries.

Our index will get fresher, more up-to-date contents, more detailed snippets. And all of these, the hallucinations will drop exponentially. Of course, there's still gonna be a long tail of hallucinations. Like you can always find some queries that perplexity is hallucinating on, but it'll get harder and harder to find those queries.

And so we made a bet that this technology is gonna exponentially improve and get cheaper. And so we would rather take a more dramatic position that the best way to actually make a dent in the search space is to not try to do what Google does, but try to do something they don't want to do.

And so we made a bet that this technology is gonna exponentially improve and get cheaper. And so we would rather take a more dramatic position that the best way to actually make a dent in the search space is to not try to do what Google does, but try to do something they don't want to do.

And so we made a bet that this technology is gonna exponentially improve and get cheaper. And so we would rather take a more dramatic position that the best way to actually make a dent in the search space is to not try to do what Google does, but try to do something they don't want to do.

For them to do this for every single query is a lot of money to be spent because their search volume is so much higher.