The Chinese smart speaker market has seen a drop in the first quarter of 2020. The reason is likely related to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, with sales mainly being dominated by the staple industry names like Xiaomi, Alibaba, and Baidu.

This news was revealed through a recent IDC report (a known analytics firm), which stated that 10.56 million smart speakers were shipped in China in Q1 2020. This marks a noticeable  year on year decline of 14.7 percent over 2019. According to IDC, the primary reason for such a shipment shrink is mainly due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the region, which caused many offline physical stores to be shut down.

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These stores have since opened up gradually, especially with restrictions being eased in late March and April. Within the trio, Alibaba claimed the top position in the market, securing 3.71 million Tmall Genie smart speakers during this period. This gave it a market share of 35.2 percent. Furthermore, the company is also planning on investing heavily in the development of artificial intelligence powered smart speakers to help it retain its current dominance.

Baidu arrived second with a market share of 30.9 percent and Xiaomi at the third spot with a close 30.4 percent market share. In other words, these three brands alone captured nearly 96 percent of the entire Chinese smart speaker market. The former has its success attributed to the touch screen speakers that it produces while the latter is another known brand with its various offerings ranging in price within this segment.

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According to a new report from a renowned analytics firm, IDC, the Chinese smart speaker market has seen unprecedented growth in the year 2019. The figures shared by the firm detail the year on year growth for each quarter and an annual growth which is a massive 109.7 percent over 2018.

As per the report published by the IDC, the smart speaker market shipments saw 45.89 million units in China alone, marking the 100% plus year on year growth. Similarly, the quarters of 2019 also represented growth overall as well, with just Q4 seeing 13.08 million unit shipments and a year on year growth of 22.5 percent over 2018.

The names that dominated this category include industry giants like Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi, with just these three accounting for nearly 90 percent of the entire Chinese market share. Alibaba’s Tmall Genie speaker took the top spot with 15.61 million units shipped in 2019, which is a significant rise of 87.9 percent over 2018. Furthermore, Baidu’s Xiaodu smart speaker arrives second with a total of 14.9 million units being shipped in 2019, seeing an incredible year on year growth rate of 278.5 percent.

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Xiaomi, on the other hand, arrived third on the list and saw an annual shipment of just 11.3 million units, marking a growth rate of 89.7 percent in just one year. Needless to say, this is an impressive growth trend that the Chinese smart speaker market has seen. Unfortunately, this trend might see an abrupt obstacle. 2020 was supposed to be the follow up year where a stable but growing trend would have been observed but due to the Coronavirus disrupting various industries and economies in early 2020, the growth rate might be severely affected.

It is currently being expected that the Q1 of 2020 will bring a decline by a notable 25.8 percent in comparison to 2019. For those unaware, the new strand of Coronavirus had originated from China before spreading to over 170 countries. This caused the Chinese government to enforce various shutdowns in high worker areas like factories and production lines. So, the issues will largely impact the entire Chinese smart speaker market.

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A latest quarterly report from research firm Strategy Analytics shows that the global smart speaker shipments grew at an astonishing rate of 197 percent year-on-year, reaching a record 22.7 million units in the third quarter of 2018.

With such growth, it is on track to surpass 100 million units in use during the final quarter of this year. According to Canalys, the market grew 187 percent in Q2 2018, with shipments of 16.8 million units.

David Mercer, Vice President at Strategy Analytics, said:

The number of smart speakers in use globally will crash through the 100 million unit barrier this month and exceed 125 million by the end of the year. The market has reached this key milestone faster than pretty much any other consumer technology device to have launched over the past decade.

In Q3 2018, the category was led by Amazon with over 32 percent market share and 7.2 million shipments. The second position was grabbed by Google that holds around 23 percent market share and shipped 5.2 million units.

Alibaba ranks third with 9.5 percent market share and 2.2 million shipments. Another Chinese brand, Baidu, was the biggest mover in the quarter with an increase in its market share from 1 percent in Q2 2018 to 8 percent in Q3 2018 and 1.9 million shipments.

After Alibaba and Baidu, China-based Xiaomi stands fifth with 8.4 percent market and 1.9 million shipments — same as Baidu. This is a significant increase in shipments from Xiaomi as it reportedly shipped 0.1 million units in Q3 2017. Apple holds the sixth position with 4.8 percent market share and 1.1 million shipments.

China has emerged this year as the second largest market for smart speakers after the USA. Strategy Analytics is forecasting a twelve-fold annual increase in Chinese shipments for the year 2018. The North America market is still being dominated by Amazon and Google in this category.

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From the report, it seems that the three Chinese companies — Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi are in a three-way battle to get the pole position in the smart speakers market, with a heavy focus in the Chinese market which is mainly driven by low pricing and heavy discounting.

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