Surprise: Baidu surpassed Google to become the world's No. 2 smart speaker manufacturer

According to the latest report from reputable market analysis company Canalys, Baidu now officially surpassed Google and holds the No. 2 position in the list of the world's largest smart speaker manufacturers in terms of numbers. quantity of shipments shipped. This is information that many people are surprised and even surprised by the "rapid expansion" of one of China's largest technology companies in a completely new field with them.

Not surprisingly, the Chinese tech giant has only officially entered the affordable smart speaker market last June with the launch of Xiaodu worth only 249 people. currency (39 USD). This can be considered a right decision of Baidu because a year ago, the company also launched a model of another smart speaker named Raven-H aimed directly at the high-end market with high selling price. 7 times compared to Xiaodu, and of course such a price is difficult to help Raven-H achieve the expected success for Baidu. In general, products from Chinese technology companies are still more suitable in the general and cheap markets.

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Xiaodu - Baidu's cheap smart speaker model

Realizing that the new segment of low-cost smart phones is 'golden egg chicken', Baidu has promoted large-scale advertising campaigns, along with the launch of more diversified models. . As expected, Baidu rose to become one of China's largest smart speaker manufacturing companies in the first quarter of this year, even above the other two big names, Alibaba and Xiaomi. By the second quarter, the company went on to defeat another 'bug' in the smart speaker market, which is Google, and 'held' the second position in the list of big smart speaker manufacturers. best of the world.

That's not to mention Baidu's products are only sold in the domestic market. If exported to potential markets like India, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa . the Baidu may "threaten" the Amazon giant's No. 1 position is entirely possible.

According to statistics from Canalys, Baidu's smart-phone business has achieved annual growth (YoY), reaching a record high of 3,700% (based on the number of shipments shipped). Amazon still holds first place, with a very high growth rate for a firm that has been on the market for a long time, up to 61.1%. Meanwhile, Google's output of smart speakers has dropped by 19.8%, from 5.4 million units in the second quarter of 2018 to 4.3 million this year. Thus, Baidu's surpassing Google is completely understandable.

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List of the world's largest smart speaker manufacturers by the second quarter of 2019

One thing to note, however, is that Baidu's entry into the smart-phone market and quickly rising to second place in the world does not really affect Google's business very much. As mentioned, Baidu only trades in the domestic market, while Google does not sell smart speakers in China - the market that these two manufacturers are "raiding" completely unrelated.

In fact, the success that Baidu has, in addition to the right strategy of this manufacturer, is also greatly contributed by the ever-expanding scale of the domestic Chinese smart market. Statistics from the beginning of this year show that China surpassed the US to become the largest smart speaker market, accounting for more than half of global shipments in the first quarter of 2019.

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Amazon still grew well and remained at the top of the list of the world's largest smart speaker manufacturers

In related information, although it achieved great success in the smartphone business, but in the field of internet services - Baidu's traditional business, the company had a forgotten business phase when 'kicked' out of China's top 5 most valuable internet companies. This internet giant, known as 'Google of China', lost 66 billion dollars due to the loss of internet service businesses in 2018.

However, with the DuerOS voice assistant platform now installed on about 400 million smart devices and a host of new branded devices on the market, Baidu is working to reverse the situation in 2019. this.

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Google and signs of prosperity again

While Amazon has achieved steady growth in smart speaker sales, another well-known name, Google, seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The latest statistics from Canalysftime show that the volume of Google's shipments of smart speaker shipments as of June 2019 has dropped by 20% over the same period last year. However, quarterly statistics (QoQ) showed the prosperity in Google's smart phone business situation, with an increase of about 25%, from 3.5 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2019 to 4.3 million units. in the second quarter.

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More than 50% of Google and Amazon's smart speaker output in the second quarter of 2019 is exported to overseas markets

This flourish is what had been anticipated after Google implemented a number of internal restructuring strategies to bring innovation in its smart home services business. Google is increasingly digging deeper into the smart-screen business, with the launch of the Home Hub last year, followed by the Nest Hub Max a few months ago. In summary, there have been a number of fluctuations in Google's senior management team, and these changes have probably had a positive impact on the company's business situation in the last few months.