Chinese-made speaker dares Amazon, Google

Dingdong A1, a made-in-China voice-activated smart home speaker brand, is squaring up to the Amazon Echo and the Google Home.

Similar to Echo and Home, the conical cloud-connected speaker can answer questions, manage schedules, provide directions, play music and voice-control other household smart devices. Dingdong A1 is the flagship product of Linglong Co, a $25 million joint venture between China's e-commerce giant JD.com and Chinese voice technology company iFlytek.

According to market research firm Gartner Inc, the global market for speakers with virtual assistants is expected to hit $2 billion in sales by 2020, almost a 500 percent rise over 2015.