Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Smart speaker market in China - statistics & facts
With the advent of industry 4.0, almost all areas of business and industry began to further their paths towards digitalization, not only in manufacturing process but also the finished products. A smart speaker is a perfect example of an industry 4.0 product. Initially, with the sole purpose of playing sound from other devices, smart speakers quickly opened a whole new chapter after virtual assistants were integrated into these products. Nowadays, smart speakers are essentially wireless speakers and act as the voice user interface to major technology platforms like Google and Apple.
In the first half of 2022, sales revenue of smart speakers in China reached 4.2 billion yuan, which was already matched 2018’s total annual sales, despite the outbreak of COVID-19. As a result of the economic impact of the pandemic on the shopping behavior of consumers around the globe, industry growth was likely to fall short of past estimates. However, since the economy in China recovered relatively quickly, most consumers did not plan to reduce their spending.
Increasing popularity
Worldwide, China is currently one of the biggest smart speaker market in terms of shipments, followed by the United States where some of the most popular smart speaker brands around the world are based. Additionally, the smart speaker market in China is dominated by domestic brands, where Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Baidu hold over 80 percent of the market share, as opposed to amounting to less than 30 percent globally.In the first half of 2022, sales revenue of smart speakers in China reached 4.2 billion yuan, which was already matched 2018’s total annual sales, despite the outbreak of COVID-19. As a result of the economic impact of the pandemic on the shopping behavior of consumers around the globe, industry growth was likely to fall short of past estimates. However, since the economy in China recovered relatively quickly, most consumers did not plan to reduce their spending.
Consumer reception
In China, smart speakers are one of the most popular smart consumer electronics. Among all smart home products, smart appliances had the highest household penetration in China, which was closely followed by smart home entertainment. The most common places to use the smart speaker for Chinese are namely the living room and bedroom due to the gadget’s functions as a music player, weather reporter, personal organizer and smart home interface, which has became an important part of their daily lives.
