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The demand for smart speakers with voice assistants among Russians in 2023 increased by more than 1.5 times year-on-year (by 65%). Representatives of the fiscal data operator Platform OFD and the united retailer M.Video-Eldorado told Vedomosti about this. According to a Wildberries representative, the market for speakers with a voice assistant shows growth in the market by 2-3 times year-on-year.

The demand for smart speakers with voice assistants among Russians in 2023 increased by more than 1.5 times year-on-year (by 65%). Representatives of the fiscal data operator Platform OFD and the united retailer M.video-Eldorado told Vedomosti about this. According to a Wildberries representative, the market for speakers with a voice assistant shows growth in the market by 2-3 times year-on-year.

According to Marvel Distribution, the volume of sales of smart speakers on the Russian market in 2022 amounted to 3 million units, and in the first 11 months of 2023 3,4 million units.

The leaders of sales of smart speakers in Russia in % in 2023

Yandex	79,4
V kontakte	7,6
Sber	5

Source: Marvel Distribution

According to the Marvel Distribution company, about 3.4 million smart speakers were sold in Russia from January to November 2023 alone, he says. Whereas for the whole of 2022, the figure barely exceeded 3 million devices, he notes. A significant part of the sales occurred during the New Year period, the representative of Yandex noted. According to him, in December alone, users bought more than 1 million Yandex stations.

According to the OFD Platform, the average check for smart speakers of domestic brands last year amounted to 7,590 rubles, which is 7% higher than in 2022. "They [speakers] are quite cheap, from 3,000 rubles, often users and even companies give them to their friends, relatives and partners," explains the CEO Telecom Daily Denis Kuskov.

According to Marvel Distribution, the undisputed leader of this market segment is Yandex with a market share of 79.4% in unit terms, followed by In Contact (7.6%) and Sber (5%). The best-selling models of smart speakers in 2023 in pieces in the retail network "M.video-Eldorado" were "Yandex light", "Yandex mini", "Yandex station 2", SberBoom Mini and VK Neo.

Sales of VK capsules doubled from January to September 2023 compared to the same period the year before last, says Pavel Korolev, commercial director of the Smart Devices business at VK.

Sales of smart speakers of various brands in 2023 increased by more than 7 times compared to 2022, said a representative of Megamarket (owned by Sber). The Yandex brand became the leader in the category, namely the stations of the Light and Mini versions, he said. Also in 2023, the smart speakers SberBoom and SberBoom Mini appeared on the market, which adds variability to customers when choosing equipment, he recalled. In 2023, 1.7 million Sber smart devices were sold, a quarter of them were smart speakers, a company representative said.

Smart speakers remain the leader in sales of smart equipment, says Alexey Barov, CEO of the Platform OFD company. Consumers often have not one, but several such devices in their home, he notes. "The mass popularization of smart gadgets is facilitated by a fairly low entry threshold and the expansion of the range of devices with different protocols, especially Russian brands," says Alexey Rogozin, head of the Entertainment and Gadgets department at M.Video–Eldorado.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics, named the release of new models, including the most budget-friendly ones, among the main reasons for the growth of the smart speaker market.

Yandex has released two new models of smart speakers (Midi and Duo Max), updated the old Max model and made a number of products in cooperation with other brands, for example, Xiaomi's Smart Display with Alice, recalled Fintech Lab accelerator analyst Sergey Villanov. Sberbank released the SberBoom and SberBoom Mini, and VK at the very end of 2022 – the Neo Capsule, which was promoted throughout 2023, he said.

Buyers choose a specific brand, in which it is easier to integrate their needs into the product and provide a connection with the gadgets and services that they already have, says a representative of Restore:. In particular, music fans and moviegoers most often choose Yandex smart speakers, which include a subscription to the company's services, he gave an example.

The growth rate is due to the relatively low degree of penetration of smart devices in households, said Alexey Pyshkin, Director of Research and Development at NotAnotherOne. According to various sources, by the end of 2022, only 3-5% of households were equipped with smart speakers, he noted, but did not provide data for 2023.

The market is still far from saturation, so at least the current sales volume will remain in 2024, Vilyanov believes. According to Burmistrov's forecasts, in 2024 the demand for speakers with a voice assistant will continue to grow. Among the trends will be the release of more budget models, as well as the expansion of functionality, which was "objectively lacking" and which will now be actively promoted as artificial intelligence develops, the expert says. "A lot depends on the further updating of product lines," says Villanov. "For example, the emergence of stereo speakers can be a powerful trigger for growth, because all current ones, including top products, reproduce only mono sound, and for stereo effect they require the purchase of another exactly the same speaker."

Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2024/01/17/1015378-prodazhi-umnih-kolonok-v-rossii-virosli