Chinese Company Baidu Bests Google in the Smart Speaker Market

The name Baidu may not tell you much, but in fact it is the largest search engine used in China and Japan. The company also produces smart speakers and has just outpaced Google in this sector.

Baidu has recorded a cosmic increase in smart speaker sales compared to last year.

The name Baidu may be as exotic for us as, let's say the Czech Seznam, but the latest report prepared by the research company Canalys shows that it should be taken into account. Baidu is the biggest Chinese search engine, which is also very popular in Japan. The company also manufactures intelligent loudspeakers and has been quite successful in this field. It even recently overtook Google, taking a high second place just behind Amazon.

According to the report prepared by Canalys, in the second quarter of 2019 Baidu sold as many as 4.5 million smart speakers, which translated into a global market share of 17.3%. Thanks to this, Baidu has overtaken Google, which holds 16.7% of the shares. It is also worth noting that the Chinese company recorded a 3700% increase in sales compared to the same period in 2018.

This is the report prepared by the Canalys research company.

The Chinese still have a hard nut to crack with Amazon, which enjoys considerable growth - 61.1% compared to last year - and a market share of 25.4%. If Baidu maintains such a dynamic pace, it will soon take first place. The fourth and fifth place were taken by Alibaba and Xiaomi, also from China.

The great popularity of Baidu is undoubtedly influenced by several key factors. First of all, their products do not cost much. The cheapest one, Xiaod, costs only 89 yuan, which is around $13. Just compare this amount with the cost of speakers from Google or Amazon to understand the secret of Baidu's popularity. It is also worth noting that Google does not sell its speakers in China, so that Baidu has a large field to show off.