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This Company Just Passed Google As No. 2 in Smart Speakers

Chinese tech company Baidu is quickly gaining traction in smart speakers. Amazon Echo remains No. 1.

Smart speakers

Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home have been the biggest players in the smart speaker market. But a new company is rising in the ranks.

Chinese tech giant Baidu has unseated Google for No. 2 in the smart speaker market worldwide, according to research firm Canalys. Baidu, which makes speakers that it sells only in China, had a 17.3% market share of shipments in the second quarter, ahead of Google, which had a 16.7% share.

Amazon led the smart speaker rankings at 25.4%.

Baidu’s rise is all the more remarkable because it has come out of nowhere. At this time last year, its market share was just under 1%, according to Canalys.

But since then, Baidu has managed to increase sales 3,700%. And no, that’s not a typo.

Baidu’s growth far outpaces that of Amazon Echo, shipments of which grew just over 61% in the past year. Google’s shipments actually declined nearly 20%.

Overall, smart speaker shipments grew 55% in the second quarter compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Manufacturers shipped over 26 million of them during that time versus 16.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

Much of that growth is coming from outside the U.S., which also works in Baidu’s favor. Shipments in the U.S. declined 2% even as the industry sees a larger growth period.

“Amazon and Google are focused on growing their business outside the U.S.,” senior analyst at Canalys Jason Low said in a statement.

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