Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 331: Chapter 272: A Hit Abroad, 300,000 Units in 5 Days! Lei Yijun: I Want One Too

On June 25, the Alexa Smart Speaker launched in the North American market.

Online sales channels were primarily Amazon and eBay, while offline channels were mainly Best Buy and Walmart.

Prior to the launch, Wang Teng had contacted several tech influencers on YouTube and Facebook to create product review videos for Alexa.

They didn’t have the largest follower counts, but their audience demographics were highly specific, and they held strong influence among younger viewers.

Take Marques Brownlee, for instance. In the future, he would become YouTube’s second-biggest tech influencer with tens of millions of followers, but at this time, he only had a little over 400,000. Nevertheless, the review video he posted for the Alexa Smart Speaker racked up 740,000 views, over 50,000 likes, and an impressive engagement rate of 6.8% in just three days.

In the video, Marques faced the camera and said, "Hey, what’s up guys! Today I’m reviewing a speaker equipped with a smart voice interaction engine. I’ll reveal the R&D team behind this product at the end of the video, so you can all take a guess which tech company created it."

In the comments section, company names like ’Google,’ ’Amazon,’ and ’Microsoft’ quickly scrolled by.

"Before you can use it, you need to download an app called Alexa from the app store. And yes, its design was inspired by *Star Trek*.

Okay, once it’s installed, you first add the device in the app. Select the device type as ’Alexa smart speaker,’ confirm the speaker is in pairing mode, then enter your Wi-Fi password to complete the connection."

Marques bobbed his head, skillfully completing the setup.

Clearly, he had thoroughly researched how to use the Alexa Smart Speaker before filming the video.

"Alexa!" Marques called out into the air.

"Good morning. I am Alexa. It’s a pleasure to be of service." The Smart Speaker on the desk glowed green as a warm, enthusiastic greeting came from its speaker.

"Play ’We Are Young’ for me." Marques began by demonstrating the music playback feature.

When connected to the internet, the Alexa Smart Speaker could instantly access music resources from Amazon Music and Spotify.

"Okay, I’ve found ’We Are Young’ by the band Fun. Please enjoy!"

Three seconds later, Alexa replied.

Upon receiving Marques’s voice command, the device used its voice recognition system to convert the analog audio signal from the microphone into a digital one. This signal was then processed and analyzed by the TI OMAP 3630 chip, which called the music platform’s API to execute the playback command.

As the music began to play, a string of exclamations like ’Oh my God,’ ’Oh my goodness,’ and ’Amazing’ once again filled the comments.

In reality, the general trend of the user comments showed signs of Wang Teng’s behind-the-scenes manipulation.

Afterward, Marques used the Alexa Smart Speaker to perform a series of other operations, such as checking the weather and traffic conditions, setting alarms, reminders, and to-do lists, and even adding items to his Amazon shopping list and placing an order via voice command.

The audience was left completely amazed!

It was important to remember that while the Lighthouse Country had the Siri voice assistant in 2012, it could only perform simple tasks like making calls, booking restaurants, or sending text messages.

Its voice recognition success rate wasn’t very high; if you asked it to play ’songs by Jay Chou,’ it might interpret it as ’songs by Zhou Jie.’

Its noise-canceling technology was poor, making it unable to accurately recognize voice commands in noisy environments.

Its multi-turn conversation capabilities were weak. For example, if you asked it which restaurant in New York was the tallest, Siri could answer correctly. But if you followed up by asking what that restaurant’s signature dish was, Siri would be completely clueless.

It had no memory of the previous question at all!

It was called a ’smart’ voice assistant, but it was practically an idiot.

Google Company had also launched a voice search function back in 2011, but its underlying core principle was merely voice recognition technology.

In terms of natural language processing, speech synthesis, and algorithmic models, it was light-years behind the Alexa Smart Speaker.

"Alexa, turn off the light!" Marques suddenly said, pointing to the lightbulb above his head as he issued another command.

CLICK!

The light switched off in response!

"Alexa, turn on the light!" Marques commanded with a smile.

For this review video, he had specifically replaced the lightbulb in his room with a Philips Hue smart bulb. After adding it to Alexa’s device list, it could be voice-controlled.

"I heard that Alexa’s manufacturer is actively working to expand the range of compatible smart home appliances. I don’t think it will be long before we can use Alexa to control every appliance in the house."

"TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, and so on—even curtains and robot vacuums. Science fiction is becoming reality. This is a very cool artificial intelligence product."

Marques’s smile faded as he stated in a serious tone.

He paused, then added, "In reality, having Alexa play music, set alarms, send texts, and book restaurants are just its basic functions. The smart interactive experience is Alexa’s true core."

"Alexa, I’m going swimming at 3 PM."

"Do you have your swimsuit, swim cap, and goggles ready? Would you like me to find information on nearby pools or set a reminder for your trip?"

"No, that’s okay. Recommend a restaurant for me. I’d like to have a chicken pizza for lunch."

"The chicken pizza at Pizza Hut has a rich sauce and a unique taste. It is located 3.7 kilometers from your address."

"Send me the location info..."

Marques and the Alexa Smart Speaker went back and forth, chatting about everything from nearby pizza places to pretty girls in New York, and from popular YouTube videos to the upcoming election.

Alexa’s responses were natural and fluid, its language incredibly expressive. It could accurately parse the user’s meaning, even understanding complex sentences, contextual relationships, and the logic of multi-turn conversations.

Of course, Alexa’s response time wasn’t yet instantaneous, usually taking 2-3 seconds. This was mainly due to limitations in chip processing power, memory capacity, computing power allocation, and the efficiency of the voice recognition model.

But in 2012, the performance of the Alexa Smart Speaker was still more than enough to win over the average user in the Lighthouse Country.