Smart speakers are one of the hottest end consumer products in 2018. This product is not only a major carrier of voice interaction system, but also regarded as the entrance of smart home. Smart speakers have linked a huge ecosystem and business opportunities, attracting major manufacturers to join the battle. This year, Apple, Facebook, Baidu, Tencent and other giants have entered the market one after another. Tian Zhihong, an analyst at Topology Industry Research Institute, said that before the Chinese smart speaker market officially ushered in a growth period next year, it will first experience the elimination of small brands caused by low-price competition from large manufacturers.
It is understood that smart speaker manufacturers will adopt more intense price competition to grab the market before and after the "Double 11". Take Alibaba's Tmall Genie as an example: the lowest price of Tmall Genie's sugar cube is priced at 199 yuan, and Baidu's Xiaodu speaker has dropped from 249 yuan to 79 yuan.
According to the estimates of the Institute of Industry and Commerce, the global shipment of smart speakers in 2018 reached 62.25 million units. In 2019, driven by the expansion of Google Home and the Chinese market, shipments are estimated to increase to 95.25 million units, with an annual growth rate of 53%.
Tian Zhihong analyzed that Amazon currently has a market share of over 70% in the US market, so Google is bound to develop overseas markets. Google is actively developing voice interaction systems in various languages ​​through its excellent AI voice system. In 2017, Google Home only supported 4 languages. By 2018, it started to support 6 languages, and the number of sales countries has increased from 6 to 13. It is expected that in 2019, it will support more than 11 languages, and the number of sales countries will increase to more than 18. In turn, Google Home shipments will increase by 72% in 2019 to 30.96 million units. Google's layout will boost the growth of the smart speaker market next year. In addition, the Chinese market entering a growth period in 2019 will also drive the development of smart speakers.
Tian Zhihong pointed out that the low-price subsidy policy of large manufacturers will make it difficult for small manufacturers to compete on price, and face heavy cost pressure or loss, and then start to withdraw or turn. It is expected that after the Chinese market has gone through the process of eliminating the weak and retaining the strong in 2019, the wait-and-see attitude of consumers will slow down, and then it will enter a growth period. Topology Industry Research Institute estimates that the shipments of Chinese smart speaker brands will increase from 14.27 million units in 2018 to 28.71 million units in 2019, a growth rate of 101.2%.
In addition to low-price competition, the strategies of major Chinese manufacturers will also use their own advantages to attract consumers to buy. For example, Alibaba focuses on the development of artificial intelligence, Xiaomi focuses on the hardware ecosystem, and Baidu is laying out artificial intelligence in order to catch up. and ecosphere. With the construction of a complete voice system and ecosystem by major manufacturers, domestic consumers' willingness to purchase smart speakers is bound to increase. On the other hand, due to the barriers of Chinese language and the difficulty of expanding services in China, the smart speakers of Amazon, Apple and Google are not sold in China.