China Tech Briefings: Alibaba to Bring Its Tmall Genie Smart Speaker to Mercedes, Audis and Volvos in China

Executive Summary

• This is our inaugural China Tech Briefings In this series, we will track news and developments related to China technology companies and share our viewpoints on how these will impact the retail sector and the overall economy.
• Alibaba recently announced another tie-up with global automakers, this time with Daimler, Audi and Volvo,that will allow owners of several models of Mercedes Benz, Audi and Volvo vehicles in China to connect to Alibaba’s smart speaker Tmall Genie using voice commands in Mandarin Chinese.
• Tmall Genie, with over 2 million units sold in China, provides entertainment and interactive education functions, much like Amazon’s Echo, and allows users to monitor their homes and offices. Now, Tmall Genie users can also monitor their vehicles and perform simple in-car tasks such as locking the doors, adjusting the air conditioning (A/C) and even planning a route.
• Alibaba is working on integrating its AliGenie, Tmall Genie’s open development platform for voice-assistant applications, more deeply into vehicles’ operating software to develop more use cases to reinvent and improve the car experience.