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Baidu overtakes Google in global smart speaker market
Chinese search giant Baidu is now the world's second biggest vendor of smart speakers, according to a new report from Canalys. The research firm says Baidu overtook Google to capture 17.3 percent of the global market with 4.5 million shipments in the second quarter of 2019, representing staggering year-on-year growth of 3,700 percent. Amazon remains the overall leader with more than 25 percent share of the market and 6.6 million shipments.
Baidu's AI speakers run on an AI platform called DuerOS. The company initially targeted the high end of the market with the Teenage Engineering-designed Raven H speaker, but that product apparently sold poorly. More recently, Baidu has pushed sales of much less expensive models, with the basic Xiaodu speaker selling for as low as 89 yuan (~$12). Baidu overtook previous domestic leader Alibaba in the first quarter of this year in China, according to Canalys.
But the company has faced some trouble lately:
Baidu has lost over $60 billion in value since its peak — now earnings are expected to fall further
TikTok's Parent Pushes Into Search Business in Threat to Baidu
Baidu is facing an unlikely challenger in China's search market — TikTok owner ByteDance
Baidu: 'China's Google' Is Not Done Yet
Related: Baidu Launches 'AI-powered Digital Assistant' Duer to Take On Google Now, Siri
Amazon Dominates Voice-Controlled Speaker Market
Alibaba Challenges Google, Amazon With New Echo-Like Device
Baidu, "China's Google", Shows First Loss
Google Will Give 100,000 Home Minis to People With Paralysis
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Monday August 26 2019, @04:45PM (2 children)
“Smart” means it’s got a microphone inside.
(Score: 3, Touché) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 26 2019, @04:54PM
That does it.... I just swallowed ten microphones just now.
I can already feel my IQ rising! Or is that my stomach acidity and the oncoming ER bill?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Monday August 26 2019, @06:50PM
No no this is China.
Here, from the product support page:
Q: i hear no sound from the speakers what must i do to activate
A: thank you for buying our smart speakers. As you should have guessed, being silent is the smart thing to do for any Chinese speaker. However if you put your ear very close to the speaker, you can hear it whispering.
Account abandoned.