Amazon Echo dominates UK smart speaker market

The UK smart speaker sector is booming and Amazon Echo is its poster child, although its market share is set to drop, according to eMarketer research.

In 2018, 9.5 million Brits will use a smart speaker, up 98.6% over 2017. 68% of those will use an Amazon Echo and 26.2% a Google Home. “Early adopters tend to be open-minded about brands, usually picking whichever speaker is first available in stores,” says eMarketer forecasting analyst Jaimie Chung. “Amazon got to the UK before Google, and usage reflects this.”

In 2019, total usage in the UK will grow another 31.6% to 12.6 million people. However, Amazon’s share will decrease to 63.8%, while Google’s share will increase to 29.5%. This trend is to continue through 2020.

“Market shares will continue to shift as smart speaker users learn the nuances of the different voice assistants,” Chung says. “Each assistant works with a different set of smart-home devices, music subscription services, video players, etc. So as users adopt more of these, they will choose their assistant accordingly. We’re even beginning to see some crossover with Apple Music coming to the Echo.”

Despite the growing capabilities of smart speakers, people still tend to use them for basic functions: listening to music or podcasts, listening to the news, asking for weather and traffic updates, and asking general questions.