{"id":157907,"date":"2017-07-03T04:30:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T04:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techwireasia.com\/?p=157907"},"modified":"2017-07-03T04:30:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T04:30:04","slug":"tencent-jumps-ai-voice-assistant-game-xiaowei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/07\/tencent-jumps-ai-voice-assistant-game-xiaowei\/","title":{"rendered":"Tencent jumps into AI voice assistant game with Xiaowei"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">THE GLOBAL appetite for voice assistants is growing and companies are taking note. This year, we\u2019ve reported beyond Amazon&#8217;s Alexa, the likes of Baidu, Huawei, and Samsung have all recently launched their own virtual assistants. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should come as no surprise then that Tencent, a dominating figure in China\u2019s software space, is also coming out with a voice assistant. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techinasia.com\/tencent-voice-assistant-launch \"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As reported by <em>Tech in Asia<\/em><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Chinese tech giant\u2019s new voice assistant, called Xiaowei, provides your standard run-of-the-mill offerings, including weather reports and news updates. It also responds to voice and facial recognition. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xiaowei is the AI assistant by Tencent with face recognition. Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While <em>TiA<\/em> points out Xiaowei is \u201cnothing new\u201d when it comes to what\u2019s currently available on the smart assistant market, the fact it\u2019s a Tencent product is validation enough. This has to do with its access to an ocean of user and enterprise data. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTencent has a lot of data sources. WeChat is simply one channel,\u201d Xiaowei head Mao Hua said, adding beyond WeChat, Tencent also gleans data from its music, news and video platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>SEE ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/01\/amazon-alexa-home-assistant-dominates-ces\/\">Looking smart: Amazon\u2019s Alexa virtual home assistant dominates CES 2017<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amongst its many competitors, Tencent has an edge because it has developed an ecosystem of portfolio companies and licensing deals. Besides being a stakeholder in the ride-hailing, food delivery and education spaces, it also has licensing partnerships in the film, music and sports industries. On top of that, WeChat clocks 938 million active users each month. <\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_157235\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-157235\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-157235 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/homepod_display_full.jpg.og_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/homepod_display_full.jpg.og_.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/homepod_display_full.jpg.og_-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/homepod_display_full.jpg.og_-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/homepod_display_full.jpg.og_-1024x538.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-157235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apple&#8217;s new HomePod is the technology company&#8217;s offering in the AI assistant market. Source: Apple<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Xiaowei is in the early stages of development but it already has 100 employees plugging away on the product, spanning across Tencent\u2019s AI Lab, WeChat, Tencent Music, Tencent Video, and Youtu Labs units. The idea is that these various product lines will be able to contribute unique AI capabilities to Xiaowei. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WeChat, in particular, will be able to train Xiaowei to grow in the areas of speech recognition and natural language processing. In the future, Xiaowei will be able to do things like multilingual translation and object detection. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>SEE ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/06\/homepod-imacs-ipads-roundup-apples-notable-announcements-wwdc\/#US2q6KdEhCDrwKtV.97\">HomePod, iMacs, iPads: Roundup of Apple\u2019s notable announcements at WWDC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tencent, a dominating figure in China\u2019s software space, is also coming out with its own voice assistant called Xiaowei, providing your standard run-of-the-mill offerings, including weather reports and news updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":313,"featured_media":157908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,7,34,9,10],"tags":[3957,56,3958],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tencent jumps into AI voice assistant game with Xiaowei - Tech Wire Asia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tencent, a dominating figure in China\u2019s software space, is also coming out with its own voice assistant called Xiaowei, providing your standard run-of-the-mill offerings, including weather reports and news updates.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/07\/tencent-jumps-ai-voice-assistant-game-xiaowei\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tencent jumps into AI voice assistant game with Xiaowei - Tech Wire Asia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tencent, a dominating figure in China\u2019s software space, is also coming out with its own voice assistant called Xiaowei, providing your standard run-of-the-mill offerings, including weather reports and news updates.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/07\/tencent-jumps-ai-voice-assistant-game-xiaowei\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tech Wire Asia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techwireasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-03T04:30:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shutterstock_514594465.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@irismtleung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techwireasia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/\",\"name\":\"Tech Wire Asia\",\"description\":\"Where technology and business intersect\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/2017\/07\/tencent-jumps-ai-voice-assistant-game-xiaowei\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shutterstock_514594465.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.techwireasia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shutterstock_514594465.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Xiaowei benefits from Tencent's data dominance in multiple areas such as music, social media and payments. 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She's mainly interested in startups, urbanism, the future of work\/media and the emerging markets. 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Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xiaowei is the AI assistant by Tencent with face recognition. Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xiaowei is the AI assistant by Tencent with face recognition. Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xiaowei is the AI assistant by Tencent with face recognition. Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>"],"_oembed_time_6a198e146d17c6fceaaa356b5544d429":["1499066909","1499066909","1499066911","1499066912"],"meta-shares":["15"],"meta-readers":["361"],"_oembed_e4160d6a9fb7a5df965410707387f49d":["<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xiaowei is the AI assistant by Tencent with face recognition. Backed by the data of WeChat and Didi Chuxing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9\">https:\/\/t.co\/69qw0Rpwy9<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6VpbAmpe5\">pic.twitter.com\/S6VpbAmpe5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Foresight Factory (@futurethoughts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/futurethoughts\/status\/881074903138652160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 1, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>"],"_oembed_time_e4160d6a9fb7a5df965410707387f49d":["1507801905"],"bs_social_share_facebook":["0"],"bs_social_share_twitter":["0"],"bs_social_share_linkedin":["0"],"bs_social_share_reddit":["0"],"bs_social_share_interval":["1641632314"],"pplrpsts_post_views_count":["11"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techwireasia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}