Alibaba shopping site Taobao rolls out voice recognition for Chinese dialects for non-Mandarin speakers

The new feature allows speakers of some major Chinese dialects to conduct voice search on the shopping platform, Taobao says. Alibaba is moving its focus away from acquiring new users to deepening relationships with existing users, CEO Daniel Zhang said last week. — SCMP

Taobao Marketplace, China’s biggest online shopping platform, has introduced a new voice search feature catering to older users speaking in regional dialects rather than the official language of Mandarin, as the Alibaba Group Holding subsidiary seeks to boost user loyalty amid weakening consumption.

Shoppers looking for items on the ecommerce platform can tap the microphone logo on the app’s search box and speak their search request, according to a video published on Taobao’s account on microblogging site Weibo on Tuesday.