By Kimeko McCoy
Publication Date: 2026-01-30 05:01:00
“Our marketing is not a bullshit machine,” said Jesse Dwyer, head of communication at Perplexity, who doesn’t see the traditional SaaS business model readily applying to the AI landscape.
The customer acquisition conundrum
Instead, Perplexity is banking on its name carrying weight to keep current users engaged and attract new ones, especially the high-level professionals its targeting. The platform received 780 million queries in May, CEO Aravind Srinivas shared at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit last summer.
From a mind share perspective, Perplexity hovers between 5-10%, according to Morning Consult research. Midjourney, Runway and Grok also fall within this range. By comparison, OpenAI’s ChatGPT commands nearly 40% of user’s market mind share.
“To a large extent, we benefit from not having to tell our story to everybody,” Dwyer said. He later added, “We’ve just really benefited from a user base that really loves what makes us different.”
Perplexity’s ‘experimental’ phase
What’s clear is who Perplexity is targeting: curious decision-makers like CEOs, investors, lawyers, high-profile athletes and journalists, Dwyer said, without revealing specific details about the breakdown of its user base. What’s less clear is Perplexity’s tactical approach to marketing as Dwyer declined to outline specific spend figures and described the company’s media mix as “experimental.”
In June last year, the AI platform hosted its first…
