(Yicai Global) Dec. 19 -- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings yesterday debuted its second smart speaker, a screened product called Tencent Jingle, signaling its entry into a highly competitive market.

Equipped with an 8-inch high-definition screen and 2500mAh battery, Tencent Jingle sells for CNY899 (USD130) each. The device also comes complete with Tencent Video, QQ Music, China Literature Listening and other Tencent content resources.

Rivalry among tech giants in the smart speaker sector is essentially a competition for the Internet of Things portal and the resulting huge traffic in the smart home market. Since last year many domestic and foreign companies have joined the competition for screened speakers, with products such as Amazon's Echo Show, Facebook's Portal, Baidu's Xiaodu, Lenovo and Google's Smart Display and others. None, however, has an absolute competitive advantage.

"Tencent's introduction of smart speakers is in line with its strategic layout," Li Xuechao, vice president of Shenzhen-based Tencent's intelligent platform products, told Yicai Global. Jingle can reduce people's anxiety about 'nothing to do,' he added.

Tencent Jingle can connect to mainstream smart home appliances to achieve voice control for lights, air conditioners and other equipment, and its screen can perform video calls, monitoring and other functions. Tencent will also include the previously-released screenless speaker into the Jingle system to follow market trend.

Voice assistants are now very powerful tools and continue to evolve, with the screen the most important. Functions such as checking a route, watching photos or videos and playing games cannot be done without a screen, according to Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.

Editor: Bivash Mukherjee