A recent Voicebot.ai report found that 47.3 million people in the U.S., or 20% of the adult population, now have access to a smart speaker. That's up from just 1% two years ago. The survey also found that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) dominates the market with its Alexa-powered devices, and Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google Home is its only meaningful competitor .
Alexa's strength is supported by the growth of Amazon's Prime ecosystem, which offers members free shipping, discounts, media content, and other perks. Research firm CIRP estimates that 63% of Amazon's U.S. customers are now Prime members, and that they spend nearly twice as much as non-members annually.
Alexa-powered speakers let Prime members order physical products and digital music by simply speaking. Voice shopping could surge from $2 billion today to $40 billion in 2022, according to OC&C Strategy Consultants .
The firm expects the number of homes using smart speakers to jump from 13% currently to 55% over that time frame. Given Amazon's commanding lead in the space, Google and Apple -- which recently launched the HomePod -- could miss out on that growth.
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