Apparently Google is not a big shot in China, then again, neither is any other Western company. In china things are locked up, with domestic grown businesses given first priority; and not by the forces of the market, the forces of the law authorities.
That aside, Baidu, the biggest search engine in China has released its smart speakers. The device will give Google Home and Amazon Echo a run for their money; and if you know anything about Chinese products, they often retail affordable.
The speaker is called Raven H, and much like the other smart speakers, it is voice-activated and powered by an artificial intelligence platform. The Raven H also marks Baidu’s first move into the AI-space, and the company is promising consumers it will churn out more products soon.
‘Humans & machines have been interacting w/ one another for years, but raven H aims to create a world in which this interaction is seamless.’ – Cheng (Jesse) Lyu, Raven founder & Baidu GM https://t.co/2lrqrxtgUs#BaiduWorld ~*Bring #AI to Life*~ pic.twitter.com/HQFun4bKmR
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) November 16, 2017
It might also interest you to know that Baidu recently acquired a Beijing-based startup dealing with matters smart home devices.
The Raven H smart speaker comes with an unconventional design; it look nothing like the types of smart speakers we have seen from Google, Amazon, or the ones other companies like Microsoft are said to be working on. The speaker seem to flip up facing the user when activated; like one of those dancing cobras you see in movies about snake charmers in the streets of India.
Though the Raven H speakers may not do so well in the Western countries because of competition from speakers makers producing for that market. Back at home in China, it is likely going to be an instant hit given the Chinese market is protected from free activities by foreign companies like Google and Amazon. That is to say, there aren’t many Google Home and Amazon Echo in retail shelves (if any) like they would be had China not restricted foreign companies operations in the country so strictly.
