In the US, the smart speaker market has accelerated quickly during 2018. The Nordics haven’t adapted to the smart speaker quite as fast, partly explained by language barriers. But, looking at Sweden as an example, we are beginning to see sales picking up. In Q4 of 2018, with X-mas likely providing an extra push, 200 000 households now have a smart speaker – equivalent to approx. 15% of households.

In the US, the number of smart speakers in households grew by 78% year-over-year (YOY) according to a recent report. This means that 53 million Americans, which equals 21% of the population, now owns a smart speaker. Comparatively, during the fourth quarter of 2018 14% (200’), of Swedish households owns at least one smart speaker. The penetration is expected to increase further, 25% of non-smart speaker households said they might purchase a smart speaker within one year.

As opposed to the US where Amazon controls a vast majority (67%) of the smart speaker market, Google is the leader on several other markets. Zooming in on Sweden specifically, Google holds more than half (55%) of the smart speaker market in Q4.

Among Swedish HHs with a smart speaker: Product/brand, Q4 2018
A contributing factor to Google’s dominating market share is that Google launched the first Swedish-speaking voice assistant on the market in August. Apple is notably missing from the list, which is also the case on the global market. Apple’s Homepod speaker targets the premium segment of consumers while Amazon and Google are pricing their speakers lower in order to gain market shares.

Despite the tech giants selling millions of units worldwide, and the smart speaker becoming increasingly common in homes, voice assistants are still in the early stages of development. However, collaborations with “Big brands” as well as media companies will likely push this market quickly – here as well as in the US. An example is IKEA, that recently announced a collaboration with Sonos. Another important factor which is likely to boost sales even further is voice assistants in local languages, as illustrated by Google Assistant’s launch which started off in Sweden – probably due to the fact that Swedish is the biggest language in the region. Google Assistant has since launched as both Danish- and Norwegian speaking, no plans on a Finnish version has been announced. Competition between actors will most likely continue during 2019.

Mediavision blogs:

The Swedish gambling market: The upcoming re-regulation, part 2
Today we are delving into consumer preferences vis-à-vis different types of gambling. If we start by looking at monthly reach per gambling type, lotteries and scratch cards currently dominate in KPI “monthly reach”. But, since lotteries as well as […].

Mediavision press releases:

Increasing number of streaming services in Nordic households
The appetite for streaming services among Nordic consumers continuously rises. Today, 5.3 million Nordic households subscribe to at least one video streaming service (SVOD). Also, the number of SVOD subscriptions per household increases […].

Industry news:

Youtube Kids launching in the Nordics
Youtube is launching Youtube Kids across the Nordics, an application geared toward kids aged 13 and below. Youtube has signed content deals with actors such as Rovio, Lego and Ruta Ett across the Nordics.

Viacom launch direct to consumer play app
Viacom has unveiled MTV Play, a direct-to-consumer subscription based streaming application. The application is initially available only in the UK and targets a young, mobile-first audience.

Facebook to spend $3.7 billion on safety
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will spend more than $3.7 billion on safety and security on its platform this year. Facebook ended 2018 with 30,000 people working on safety and security.

Snap beat Q4 expectations
Snap reported its fourth quarter results on Tuesday and beat analyst’s expectations. Following the report Snap’s stock jumped 17%. Snap said its daily active user count has stabilized following two quarters of decline.

Google+ shuts down
Google+ has struggled to gain ground against the social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and now the service is to be discontinued. On April 2^nd the service will shut down and all content will be taken down.

Mediavision in the news:

Så går AVOD-tittandet i Norden
Avod-marknaden, alltså den annonsbaserade streamingmarknaden, står för ungefär en fjärdedel av intäkterna på den nordiska videoannonsmarknaden. Det enligt siffror från Mediavision. AVOD-tittandet har ökat markant de senaste två åren […].

AVOD accounts for quarter of Nordic video advertising revenue
Ad-based video on demand (AVoD) is currently capturing approximately one quarter of Nordic video advertising marketing revenue, in terms of broadcast and internet TV […].

Nordiska marknaden for annonsfinansierat onlinetittande ökar
Avod står för nära en fjärdedel av intäkterna på den nordiska streamingmarknaden enligt siffror från Mediavision. Tittandet på streaming som betalas av annonsörer har ökat […].

Industry events

• MIPTV: April, 8-11, Cannes, France

*Events where Mediavision will be presenting