XAPPmedia BLOG

The Voice Search Imperative for Alexa and Google Assistant. If You Ain’t First, You’re Last, Says Former Amazon Executive Now at Nestlé.

“When it comes to voice search, you go first position or you go home because beyond the first or second place there is no future,” commented Sebastien Szczepaniak, a former Amazon executive who now heads e-commerce for Nestlé SA. He has particular insights into the challenges given his background with the world’s largest online marketplace that also is the global market share leader in the voice assistant segment.

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Westwood One Sports Debuts Interactive Listening Experience of 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and More for Alexa

Westwood One, the largest radio network in the U.S., and the official network radio partner of the NCAA, has worked with Amazon and development partner XAPPmedia to offer Alexa and Westwood One consumers effortless access to Westwood One Sports’ exclusive live audio coverage and post-game recaps of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

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XAPP is Bringing Podcasts to Google Home and Assistant

A new Google Assistant feature was announced Friday called Media Response API. XAPP has been working with a beta version of the Media Response API for several months during a developer review period. We are happy to say that three XAPP podcast customers are officially live on Google Assistant and Google Home today using the new capabilities.

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Voice Shopping to Rise to $40 Billion in 2022. Are You Ready?

There is a new report by OC&C that reveals voice commerce reached nearly $2 billion in the U.S. in 2017. More surprising to some is that it is projected to reach $40 billion in the next five years. That is an 86% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). And, it’s not just a U.S. phenomenon. In the U.K. voice shopping is expected to climb from just $200 million to $5 billion in that same period.

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Federated Media Lays Out Alexa Strategy for Radio Ink

Federated Media’s B100 was the first radio station to create a custom Alexa skill almost a year ago with the help of XAPPmedia. Recently, Radio Ink interviewed Federated’s Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Programming, James Derby, about how smart speakers fit into the radio broadcaster’s strategy.

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Westwood One Brings the Winter Olympics to Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa users can access the Winter Olympics content by saying, “Alexa, open Westwood One Sports.” They will then be offered the opportunity to listen live if a live broadcast is underway, hear the most recent live broadcast on demand, or listen to summary highlights from the day. Westwood One collaborated with XAPPmedia to launch the Westwood One Alexa skill in time for the Olympic Games opening ceremonies on February 9th.

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How Voice Commerce Will Impact Omni-channel Brand Strategies…and what you should do about it.

Voice assistants are destined to become a big part of consumers’ lives and represent both a big opportunity and a threat for brands. Why? Purchases that occur today through physical stores, websites and apps will materially shift to voice commerce over the next three years. Brands can take advantage of these changing consumer preferences or cede a rapidly growing sales channel entirely to their competitors.

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