Chinese Tech Titan Alibaba Looks to 'Echo' Amazon's Smart-Speaker Success
30 June 2017 - 10:47PM
Dow Jones News
By Liza Lin
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to introduce a digital personal
assistant similar to Amazon.com Inc.'s Echo device as soon as next
week, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The home device, powered by voice-recognition technology, will
be targeted at Chinese consumers. Among other features, the device
will allow people to use verbal commands to buy products from
Alibaba's shopping platforms Taobao and Tmall, the person said.
Alibaba's device, which was first reported by the Information,
will likely heighten the competition for Amazon, Alphabet Inc.'s
Google and Apple Inc. when they look to market their own digital
assistants in China.
Chinese search-engine giant Baidu Inc. launched its own
voice-controlled home robot, called Little Fish, in April. It
includes a tablet screen that allows users to perform searches,
order food and play music and movies.
Alibaba's smaller e-commerce rival JD.com Inc. already sells a
smart home speaker, called Dingdong, and has been touting an
upgrade that allows Chinese consumers to use the device to practice
their English.
These and other Chinese technology companies, including Tencent
Holdings Ltd., control the lion's share of the domestic market for
online retail, music, live-streaming video and search, among other
services.
Write to Liza Lin at liza.lin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 30, 2017 08:32 ET (12:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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