According to Canalys, Baidu replaced Google in the number 2 position in the smart speaker market in the second quarter of 2019. The Chinese vendor grew 3,700% to reach 4.5 million units in quarter 2 after it re-entered the market with Xiaodu device in Q2 last year. Even though Baidu serves only China, it beat Google who shipped out 4.3 million units in the same quarter.
Well Amazon is still the market leader with more than 25 percent market share and 6.6 million shipments.
According to Canalys, for Baidu to replace Google to become the world’s second largest smart speaker vendor is no small feat, but bears small significance as both companies operate in mutually exclusive markets. “Aggressive marketing and go-to-market campaigns built strong momentum for Baidu in China. The vendor stood out as a key drive of smart displays, to achieve 45% of smart display product mix in its Q2 shipments.”
“Local network operators interests on the device category soared recently. This bodes well as it faces little competition in the smart display category, allowing the company to dominate in the operator channel.”
China”s smart speaker market performance outshone others as the country doubled its quarterly shipment size to 12.6 million units, more than twice as large as the US market which stands at 6.1 million units.
Amazon and Google are focused on growing the market outside the US, said Canalys. “Google’s transition to the Nest 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.”
