Bucking the Trend and Growing 16%! In January-February, Smart Speakers Led the IoT Industry

According to the report "Chinese Smart Speakers Retail Market Monthly Tracker" by RUNTO, the sales volume of Chinese Smart Speakers Market in january-february 2020 was 5.8 million, up 16% year on year. The market turnover was 1.20 billion yuan, up 25% year on year. The negative impact of COVID-19 on the smart speaker market was not shown on the sales side.

Offline channels became the main force of market growth in January

According to RUNTO, 4.09 million smart speakers were sold in China in January, up 23 percent from a year earlier and up 2 percent from the previous month. Under the double impact of the Spring Festival dislocation and the outbreak of the epidemic, the online market has declined, but in January, e-commerce platforms have an important promotion festival -- the Spring Festival shopping festival, so the decline is smaller.

The offline market is the main driving force for the growth of the overall market, with a growth rate of more than 100%, mainly because the offline channels were still being developed at the beginning of last year, which are only part of the stores and brand experience stores of large chain and regional chain. By 2020, in addition to the continuous expansion of the above channels, operators are another force that cannot be ignored.

Product improvement channel diversification in February market growth

February is the slow season for smart speakers. Sales of smart speakers in China edged up 2% from a year earlier to 1.72 million units in February, down 58% from the previous month, according to RUNTO. The market maintained a small growth rate last year due to a low base, although it was affected by logistics constraints, insufficient inventory and the failure of offline stores to return to work.

According to RUNTO, there are two main reasons: first, the improvement of products. In order to meet the differentiated needs of different user groups for products, mainstream manufacturers gradually realize the layout of high, medium and low end, and the product functions are constantly enriched. Second, the diversification of sales channels, the emergence of offline operators, in addition to the four online e-commerce platforms and official websites, the rise of ecological chain channels (such as alibaba's alipay channel, ali health, etc.), cross-border brand cooperation, live streaming and other ways.

"No suspension of school" to promote the sales of audio box with screen

In February, the general office of the ministry of education and the general office of the ministry of industry and information technology issued a "no suspension of classes" instruction, the rise of online classes. According to statistics, during the outbreak, about 270 million school students studied online at home. Screen speakers are favored, with a market share of 21.6% in january-february 2020, up 19.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to online data from RUNTO.

Online classes need not only high-quality equipment, but also high-quality content. Tmall elves online wisdom classes, including Chinese enlightenment, health protection and other learning courses, and in March with the people's education club launched a digital classroom. Baidu and many other mainstream educational institutions, such as xueersi, provide free education resources. It can be predicted that in 2020, content will become one of the focuses of the efforts of leading manufacturers, and the differentiation of content may determine the position of enterprises in the market.

The Chinese Smart Speakers Retail Market Monthly Tracker report by RUNTO contains Monthly updates of Retail data on the overall Market and online Market in terms of Retail volume, channel, brand and product type, as well as best-selling models and price trends.