The global smart speaker market continued on its growth path in the second quarter, driven by China where shipments doubled year-on-year and domestic player Baidu overtook Google’s Home product, data from Canalys showed.

The global market recorded 55.4 per cent growth in the quarter to 26.1 million units, with Amazon maintaining its lead and Baidu, which only serves the China market, moving ahead of Google to take second place with 4.5 million units shipped.

The China vendor posted 3,700 per cent growth year-on-year to take a 17.3 per cent market share (see chart below, click to enlarge). Google’s shipments declined 19.8 per cent to 4.3 million units.


Cynthia Chen, Canalys Research analyst, said the Chinese vendor stood out as a key driver of smart displays, which accounted for 45 per cent of is product mix in the April to June period. She noted local network operators’ interest in the device category has increased which “bodes well for Baidu as it faces little competition in the smart display category, allowing the company to dominate in the operator channel”.

Alibaba and Xiaomi ranked fourth and fifth respectively, both reporting about 38 per cent year-on-year growth.

The US market slowed in the quarter, with shipments falling 2.4 per cent to 6.1 million.

Canalys senior analyst Jason Low pointed out vendors face the challenge of pivoting to more complex devices in the short term, with most companies looking to integrate displays.