Amazon.com Inc. AMZN is going great guns with the global expansion of its Echo devices. Recently, the company announced that Alexa and Echo are now available in France.
As of now, Amazon Alexa is available in nine countries through the company's Echo speakers. Amazon announced that it has started accepting pre-orders in France for Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Spot devices priced at €49.99, €29.99 and €64.99, respectively. In order to attract customers, the company has also discounted all three devices by 50% for the launch. The shipment of Echo and Echo Dot will begin on Jun 13, while that of Echo Spot will begin next month.
In addition, Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) that allow developers to make voice apps for Alexa, can now be used by developers to build new skills for customers in mainland France.
On a year-to-date basis, the company has outperformed the industry it belongs to. Shares of Amazon have gained 45.03% compared with the industry’s growth of 27.97%.
Alexa & Echo Devices! Let's Discover New Markets
Apparently, Amazon has been putting in a lot of effort to search for new markets for its Alexa powered devices like Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Spot. The rate at which the company is penetrating new markets makes us optimistic.
This growing presence will help Amazon maintain its dominance in the smarthome market. It already holds almost a majority share in this market. However, competition is on the rise for Amazon. In the area of voice assistants, Google’s Assitant and Apple’s Siri provide tough competition to Amazon’s Alexa. The global market for voice assistants is expected to grow at CAGR of 39.27% between 2017 and 2023, thereby reaching $7.8 billion by 2023. In case of voice-controlled speakers, competition is getting stiffer. Per a latest report by Strategy Analytics, Google, with the introduction of Google Home Mini, accounted for 26.5% of the market share, up from 12.5% in the year-ago quarter.
Nevertheless, Amazon, with several iterations of the Amazon Echo, maintained its dominant position in the smart speakers market by acquiring 43.6% market share in the last reported quarter.
Our Take
Amazon Alexa-powered Echo devices have been one of its best performing products so far. These devices support Amazon’s bottom line even after sale by complementing Amazon’s other services. Expanding in new countries will help in increasing its user base. Consequently, its recurring revenue base will improve.
Moreover, we believe that the expansion will not only help Amazon to sell products in these countries but also help it to get a lot of user data that it can utilize to provide more customer-oriented services in these countries. This will bode well for the company’s top line in the long haul.
Zacks Rank &Other Stocks to Consider
Currently, Amazon has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other top-ranked stocks in the same industry include Groupon GRPN, PetMed Express PETS and Expedia EXPE. While Groupon and Expedia sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), PetMed carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth for Groupon, PetMed and Expedia is currently projected to be 6.5%, 10% and 14.5%, respectively.
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