Expansion of AI Speaker Market... SKT's 'Nugu' Ranks First in App Users

Nielsen Korea Click Survey Results Announcement

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] As the use of applications (apps) that link artificial intelligence (AI) speakers and smartphones increases, SK Telecom's 'NUGU' app ranked first in net user surveys.

Market research firm Nielsen Korean Click announced on the 21st that among AI speaker apps based on the Android operating system during the first week of February (January 31 to February 6), SK Telecom's NUGU had the highest number of net users at 274,429. This surpassed 270,000 again following about 247,000 in the first week of January.

During the same period, Kakao's 'Hey Kakao' app had 94,988 users, and KT's 'Giga Genie' app had 94,176 users. Hey Kakao recorded its lowest point in the past three months with about 26,000 users in the third week of January but then rose to the 94,000 range. Giga Genie maintained between 70,000 and 100,000 users over the past three months.

The retention rates, which indicate continuous app usage, were in the order of NUGU (55.5%), Hey Kakao (47.1%), and Giga Genie (42.6%).

The AI speaker-related market continues to grow. Following SK Telecom, KT also introduced an AI speaker equipped with Alexa through a partnership with Amazon, intensifying competition. It is also expected that the number of consumers seeking apps to better utilize AI speakers will increase.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.