China becomes world's second-largest market for smart speakers

Smart speakers of Xiaomi are on display at a tech store in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on June 3, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

China has rapidly emerged this year as the second-largest market for smart speakers after the United States, according to the latest report by industry tracker Strategy Analytics.

The global smart speaker shipments grew an astonishing 197 percent year-over-year to reach a record 22.7 million units in Q3 2018 and Chinese market accounted for 30 percent share of global smart speaker shipments in the past quarter, up from 5 percent in Q3, 2017, the report said.

Although the US remains the largest market for smart speakers, its share has slipped to below 50 percent of global demand, the report on global smart speaker market by vendor for the third quarter this year said.

The UK, Germany and South Korea are currently the next three largest markets for smart speaker shipments.

China's Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi are among the top five vendors in Q3 with 9.5, 8.4, 8.4 percent market shares respectively.

Baidu, in particular, made strong ground in Q3 following the launch of its first low-cost speaker, the report said.

Chinese shipments of smart speakers are projected to reach a twelve-fold annual increase for 2018, Business Wire reported citing David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics.

According to GfK, a German market research firm, China's smart speaker online market retail volume is expected to reach 9 million units for this year.