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China’s Baidu shipped more smart speakers in Q2 2019 than Google: Canalys
Amazon shipped 6.6 million units of its Echo speakers, while Baidu shipped 4.5 million units. Google shipped 4.3 million units in Q2 2019
It seems Google has slipped from second place in the smart speaker market, replaced by its Chinese counterpart Baidu. According to a report by Canalys, Amazon maintained its lead in the global smart speaker space, followed by Baidu, Google, Alibaba and Xiaomi, in that order.
The report says the overall market grew by 55.4% in Q2 2019 and shipped a total of 26.1 million units. Amazon shipped 6.6 million units of its Echo speakers, while Baidu (which serves only in China) shipped 4.5 million units and showed growth of 3700% in the quarter. The company has its Xiaodu smart speakers, which were introduced in Q2 of last year.
Google, on the other hand, shipped 4.3 million units, slipping behind the Chinese giant. Canalys says “China’s smart speaker market performance outshone others”, with double the quarterly shipment size and a total of 12.6 million units shipped. That’s more than two times the size of the US market, which has 6.1 million units, the report states.
“Aggressive marketing and go-to-market campaigns built strong momentum for Baidu in China. The vendor stood out as a key driver of smart displays, to achieve 45% smart display product mix in its Q2 shipments,” said Cynthia Chen, Canalys Research Analyst. Chen also noted that Baidu faces “little competition” in the smart display space in China.
Further, it seems the market size for smart speakers in the US also declined by 2.4% in Q2 2019. Canalys Senior Analyst noted that both Google and Amazon “are focused on growing their business outside the US”. “Google’s transition to the Next branding while pivoting to smart displays proved to be a challenge, especially as it has begun rolling out its Nest Hub smart display globally. Google urgently requires a revamped non-display smart speaker portfolio to rekindle consumer interest,” Low noted.
Incidentally, Google launched the Google Nest Hub smart display in India just today. The device competes against Amazon’s Echo Show and Echo Show 5 smart displays, and is priced at Rs. 9999. According to IDC’s (International Data Corporation) India Monthly Smart Speaker Device Tracker, Google had 39% of the market share here in 2018, behind Amazon which has 59% of the market share.
The two companies are pretty much the only ones selling smart speakers in India at the moment. However, companies like Bose and Sony have used Google and Amazon’s technology to offer smart speakers in India in 2019 as well and it’s a matter of time before others do the same.
