Users attempting to login to the Indian domain for the popular AI chatbot Perplexity are being unexpectedly rerouted, not to Perplexity’s service, but to a direct competitor. If you type Perplexity.in and hit enter, you will be directed to Google Gemini. Generally, this situation arises when a company fails to secure a country-specific domain (for example, opting only for abcxyz.com globally instead of securing the corresponding abcxyz.in). By leaving the domain unregistered, a company essentially keeps the door open for a third party to purchase it and implement the redirect.This development suggests that the prominent AI startup, which directly competes with Google, did not secure the country-specific domain for its service. However, this does not mean that Google has bought it; there is no evidence that Google bought the Perplexity.in domain.

Perplexity.com redirects to Perplexity.ai

Perplexity, which is based in San Francisco, has purportedly avoided purchasing country-specific domains, operating under its primary Perplexity.ai domain. Even if you type Perplexity.com, you will be redirected to Perplexity.ai.Moreover, the company does not own domains for other markets, such as the United Kingdom (.uk), France (.fr), Canada (.ca), Germany (.de), among others, suggesting the omission in India may be its adherence to policy.

Perplexity scaling its business in India

Perplexity is working to scale its presence in India. Recently, it announced a partnership with Airtel to offer Perplexity Pro services to the telecom giant’s users. In September, Perplexity’s AI browser Comet was made available to Pro plan subscribers in India, allowing users to book meetings, send emails and make online purchases.