Everyone’s heard the speculation: Voice search is the future of online searches. Some say it’ll kill SEO altogether, while others claim it’ll take over your home, belongings, and even unleash your dog upon the neighborhood. The hype is real, but how much of it holds water? Here at nexus-security, we deal in facts, and nothing solidifies facts like cold, hard data.
Here are 33 voice search statistics to get you ready for the voice search takeover.
Voice Search in General
1. Half of all searches will be voice-based by 2020, according to comScore. (What’s a voice search article without this stat, right?) 2. By 2020, roughly 30% of all searches will be screenless, as per Gartner. 3. OC&C Strategy Consultants reports that 13% of US homes had a smart speaker in 2017. This figure is projected to skyrocket to 55% by 2022.
4. Activate estimates that there will be approximately 21.4 million smart speakers in the US by 2020. 5. The voice recognition market is on track to become a $601 million industry by 2019, as per Technavio. 6. Edison Research and NPR states that one out of every six Americans (16%) owns a voice-activated smart speaker. 7. Alpine.AI reported that as of January 2018, there were an estimated one billion voice searches each month.
How People Use Voice Search
1. Google found that 52% of users place their voice-activated speakers in their living rooms, followed by 25% in bedrooms and 22% in kitchens.
2. In 2017, 35.6 million Americans utilized a voice-activated assistant device at least monthly, according to eMarketer, marking a significant 128.9 percent surge from the previous year. 3. CTA indicates that during the 2017 holiday season, a quarter of all shoppers relied on voice assistants for their shopping needs. 4. Google reveals that 72% of voice-activated speaker owners consider their devices to be an integral part of their daily routines. 5. According to Search Engine Watch, voice-related searches on mobile devices are three times more likely to be local compared to text-based searches. 6. GeoMarketing suggests that 65 percent of Amazon Echo and Google Home owners can’t imagine life without their smart speakers. 7. Google found that 41% of voice-activated speaker users feel like they’re communicating with a friend or another person.
Voice Search User Demographics
1. eMarketer shows that millennials are leading the way in voice assistant adoption, with 35.8% using them at least monthly, compared to only 10.1% of baby boomers. 2. This trend is expected to continue, with eMarketer projecting that the number of millennials using voice-enabled digital assistants will reach 39.3% in 2019.
3. Location World states that two out of five adults turn to voice search at least once per day. 4. Approximately one in five adults use mobile voice search at least monthly, per Global Web Index. 5. Global Web Index found that 25% of individuals aged 16-24 utilize voice search on their mobile devices. 6. Walker Sands indicates that individuals aged 26-35 make up the largest demographic of smart home device owners.
Voice Search and Devices
1. According to eMarketer, 70.6% of Americans who used a voice-enabled speaker at least once a month in 2017 opted for Amazon Echo, while 23.8% chose Google Home. 2. Microsoft’s Purna Virji reveals that voice searches constitute 25% of all searches made through the Windows 10 taskbar.
3. Techcrunch reported that the Echo Dot emerged as the top-selling product across Amazon during the 2018 holiday season. 4. Strategy Analytics states that Amazon and Google collectively dominate the smart speaker market, accounting for 94% of all devices in use. 5. Google Assistant has expanded its reach significantly, now being available on over 400 million devices, per Google. 6. GeoMarketing highlights a strong correlation between Amazon Echo ownership and Amazon Prime subscriptions, with 82 percent of Echo owners being Prime subscribers. 7. While the Apple HomePod boasts a 99.4 percent accuracy in understanding queries, it only provides correct answers 52.3 percent of the time, according to Loup Ventures. This places it behind Amazon Echo (64%), Google Home (81%), and Harman Kardon Invoke (57%) in terms of answer accuracy.
The Rise of Voice Commerce
1. Last year, voice commerce sales reached $1.8 billion, and OC&C Strategy Consultants predicts a surge to $40 billion by 2022. 2. Edison Research found that 22% of US smart speaker owners have already embraced the convenience of making purchases using their devices. 3. Currently, 5% of consumers engage in voice shopping, but MoffettNathanson suggests this figure could skyrocket to 50% by 2022. 4. In 2017, groceries dominated voice shopping, representing 20% of purchases, compared to clothing, which accounted for a mere 8%, per OC&C Strategy Consultants. 5. A significant portion of voice-activated speaker owners, 52%, are keen on receiving information about deals, sales, and promotions from brands, as indicated by per Google. Additionally, 39% are interested in receiving options for finding business information.
6. Walker Sands found that one in five consumers (19%) have already made a purchase using their voice through Amazon Echo or other digital home assistants, and a further third (33%) are planning to do so within the next year.
Embracing the Voice Revolution
As the saying goes, adapt or perish! The voice search phenomenon has gained incredible momentum in the past couple of years. The statistics speak for themselves, painting a clear picture of its rapid rise. We’re quickly approaching 2020, the year famously predicted by comScore to mark the tipping point where voice searches reach 50% adoption. In fact, various industry predictions point to 2020 as the year voice search truly explodes onto the scene. Utilize these 33 statistics to start envisioning how your brand can leverage this ubiquitous trend.
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