- DuerOS install base is growing rapidly on smart IoT devices and smartphones, as AI-powered virtual assistants turn mainstream in China.
- DuerOS is forming extensive partnerships with device makers, chip manufacturers, content providers and skills developers to provide the best AI user experience and further strengthen its position to become China’s largest conversational AI platform
BEIJING, Aug. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) today announced a major milestone, as the install base of DuerOS, the company’s conversational AI assistant, reached 100 million devices, doubling over the past six months. This milestone further cements DuerOS’s leading position as a major conversational AI platform in China.
“DuerOS leverages Baidu’s leading AI technologies and a vast content ecosystem to provide unmatched user experience in conversational AI. We are seeing voice input gaining huge adoption in China. By leveraging Baidu’s AI technology, which has the largest indexing of Chinese webpages and a better multi-modal semantic understanding of the Chinese language, DuerOS is uniquely positioned for the shift to conversational AI in China,” said Kun Jing, General Manager of Baidu’s Smart Living Group.
DuerOS offers first-party devices as well as developer tool kits and turnkey solutions to enable OEMs to easily integrate AI capabilities into their devices, such as TV set-top boxes, children’s storytelling machines, smart speakers and home appliances. In June 2018, Baidu launched Xiaodu Smart Speaker, selling out 10,000 units within the first 90 seconds it was available online. Two months prior, Baidu released Xiaodu Video Smart Speaker in partnership with Ainemo Inc., garnering overwhelmingly positive customer reviews.
The DuerOS platform has attracted over 200 partners, is powering over 110 models of smart devices and has a community of over 16,000 skills developers. DuerOS has formed partnerships with leading smartphone brands, including Huawei, Vivo and OPPO, which have integrated DuerOS conversational AI capabilities into several of their flagship phone models. DuerOS is partnering with InterContinental Hotels Group to bring smart rooms to China, enabling hotel customers to control their rooms and receive hotel information via voice commands. DuerOS has also formed partnerships with auto OEMs, such as BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor, Hyundai, Kia, Chery, BAIC Group, FAW Group and BYTON, to allow users to navigate internet services, such as ordering movie tickets and booking hotels, using AI input modalities, such as voice, image and facial recognition.
According to the Smartphones: Global Artificial Intelligence Technologies Forecast: 2010 to 2023 report published in July 2018, Strategy Analytics, a leading market research and consulting firm, described DuerOS as “the fastest rising assistant from China” and suggested that it may become the second largest smartphone virtual assistant in the world behind Google Assistant in the next few years.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world simpler through technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.
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