Smart speakers throughout the house - but not for shopping

A total of 1,500 German adults were surveyed in spring 2019 on the ownership and use of smart speakers. 933 participants in the study stated that they owned at least one voice-controlled assistant. This group of people was examined in more detail with regard to various usage patterns.

Those who choose a smart speaker also use it: 82 percent of those surveyed said they use the voice-controlled assistance on a daily basis. This high intensity of use obviously takes place in more than one room - because over 60 percent of the study participants own at least two smart speakers, and every fifth user even owns four or more devices. Amazon clearly stands out: three quarters of respondents own at least one smart speaker model from the American company.

The topics of data protection and privacy in particular are often discussed in Germany in connection with voice-controlled assistants. Apparently, even the users of smart speakers are undecided about how to evaluate this: More than one in five see a high or increased risk to privacy - and as many as 35 percent of owners still consider the devices a medium risk. Looking at the high intensity of use, however, this risk does not seem to matter in the end. The places for smart speakers in the home, also do not indicate any special precautionary measures: Bedrooms (44 percent), bathrooms (21 percent) and even children's rooms (10 percent) are also equipped with the devices.

Four areas of application stand out among the German smart speaker users surveyed: Most users use them to activate their streaming services, ask their voice-controlled assistant various questions, control their smart home in this way or organize themselves. What the devices are hardly ever used for in this study is shopping: 87 percent of users say they have never made a purchase using voice control - and most of them even say that this type of shopping is out of the question for them (64 percent). In other markets such as the USA, voice-controlled shopping is still a small area. However, current studies assume that this segment will grow - to the extent that voice control of devices is increasingly becoming a natural part of our lives.

Experts leave no doubt that the market for smart speakers and voice-controlled applications will continue to develop rapidly4. And the Beyto study also shows the growth potential for this market segment: of those surveyed who do not yet own a smart speaker, 8 percent are already planning to buy one, and another 48 percent can at least imagine doing so. German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier is also certain that companies have recognized this: "In one or two years, all devices will be operable by voice control."