Baidu, the biggest Chinese search service, is now the second biggest vendor of the smart speakers in the whole world. Research firms say that Baidu managed to overcome Google by getting 17.3% of the global market, with 4.5 million shipments in the second quarter of the year 2019. This represents a year-on-year growth of 3.700%. However, Amazon remains the leader, with more than 25% share of the market, and 6.6 million worth of shipments.
The AI of Baidu works on an AI platform that’s named DuerOS. The company was placed initially at the high end of the market, with the Raven H speaker, but that did not turn out to be useful since it didn’t really sell. Recently, Baidu has pushed the sales for most of the less expensive models. The primary Xiaodu speaker was sold for 89 yuan – that’s $12. It is worth mentioning that Baidu also managed to beat the leader Alibaba, in the first quarter of this year.
What’s Google role in this?
However, Google and Baidu are not direct competitors, since Baidu sells its products in its home market, and Google sells its products everywhere, but China. But the growth of Baidu shows the size and the dynamics of the Chinese AI ecosystem. The CEO of Baidu, Robin Li, said that they don’t worry about Google entering China.
Google has an advantage: it is able to address other countries. However, we also know that the Nest Hub – previously known as Google Home Hub – launched in India, which is another huge market. The devices have its price of 9.999 rupees – that’s about $139. Multiple sources stated that Xiaomi’s Mi Security Camera and the Nest Hub are helping Google to launch a promotion.
Justin Morgan helped bring TeslaBel from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a contributor to TeslaBel, Justin mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.