Perplexity AI, the company behind the AI answer engine "Perplexity," announced on May 21, 2025 that ITmedia, which operates a portfolio of IT news sites, has joined its Publisher Program[1]. The program is built around a mechanism that returns a share of the advertising revenue Perplexity earns to participating media, with the goal of letting AI search and content creators build a cooperative relationship[1]. With a major Japanese IT-focused publisher taking part, the move is also a notable signal for how the relationship between AI and media may develop in Japan.
What the Publisher Program Offers
The Publisher Program is an effort to build cooperative ties with content suppliers, including web media, in order to promote more reliable and accurate information[1]. Participating publishers receive several concrete benefits[1].
Specifically, they can share in part of the advertising revenue generated through Perplexity's ad-delivery features, and they also gain access to an API for their employees[1]. In addition, the benefits include free use, for a limited time, of the enterprise plan "Perplexity Enterprise Pro"[1]. For Perplexity, which answers questions while explicitly citing its sources, connecting directly with trusted information providers also helps underpin the quality of its answers.
Through this partnership, ITmedia will receive Perplexity's AI services and promote their use within its own organization[1]. Perplexity, for its part, makes its search engine more attractive and shares the advertising revenue that results from it[1].
ITmedia's Participation and Its Aims
ITmedia is an internet-only media company that provides information and services centered on technology-related fields[2]. It is used by roughly 50 million unique browsers each month and operates many audience-specific sites, including the general IT information portal "ITmedia," the comprehensive site for corporate IT products "Keyman's Net," and "@IT" for IT experts[2]. The company is listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the securities code 2148[2].
ITmedia's President and CEO, Kobayashi, explained that the company sends out a great deal of information about AI every day and aims to realize its corporate philosophy of "innovating media" through the use of AI in its media business[1]. On that basis, he said he strongly sympathized with Perplexity's stance of actively pursuing coexistence with media as the creators of information, which led to this partnership[1].
The Context of "Coexistence" Between AI Search and Media
As generative-AI search and answer engines spread, how to return value to the media that create the content remains an industry-wide topic of debate. On this point, Perplexity has set out a policy of building cooperative relationships through partnerships with publishers, and this latest participation is positioned as part of that approach[1].
Perplexity AI's APAC representative, Morita, commented that the partnership with ITmedia is a major step toward further strengthening trust with publishers and delivering accurate, timely information to the public[1]. He noted that the company's global publisher collaborations are steadily expanding and expressed the view that this initiative will serve as a good model for other media as well[1].
Perplexity is an AI company founded in 2022 by former members of OpenAI, Meta, Quora, Bing, and Databricks[3]. Its strength lies in a design that gathers answers from trusted sources in real time and responds with inline citations[3]. The fact that a company that has championed source attribution is now joining hands financially with media as the providers of information looks set to become a touchstone for thinking about the relationship between AI search and media.
Summary
ITmedia's participation in Perplexity's Publisher Program symbolizes a move in which AI search and media seek cooperation rather than confrontation. Through concrete benefits such as advertising revenue sharing, API access, and the provision of an enterprise plan, a structure is emerging in which trusted content creators and an AI company are linked together. With a Japanese IT-focused publisher now taking part, attention turns to whether similar collaborations will spread within Japan.
出典:https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000006.000157647.html
出典:https://corp.itmedia.co.jp/pr/releases/2025/05/21/perplexity/
