Chinese tech giant Alibaba is gearing up to launch a smart speaker, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a source “familiar with the matter”.

The new Tmall Genie aims to rival similar speakers already introduced onto the Chinese market by Baidu and JD.com.

The voice-controlled device will play music, run apps and enable users to make purchases from online stores.

The source said it will initially be configured only to understand Chinese.

The new Tmall Genie is introduced to the public. /VCG Photo‍

Smart speakers are the latest must-have gadgets sparking fierce competition among rival companies.

In China, Baidu and JD.com already have smart speakers on the market while Tencent, China's biggest tech company, have their own version in development.

In the West, the Amazon Echo already competes against Google Home. Apple, Microsoft and Samsung all reportedly have versions of their own in development.

Gong Zhe, CGTN Science and Technology Editor

"It's quite understandable that people would have safety concerns over these voice assistants. Earlier this year, a TV host in the US said on air "Alexa ordered me a doll’s house" and a number of viewers’ Amazon Echos started placing doll’s house orders. That means the Echo can't tell who's giving the command or even if the voice is pre-recorded."

The Amazon Echo with its personal assistant, Alexa. /VCG Photo

"According to online video demonstrations, the Tmall Genie has in-built voice recognition software to prevent other people from spending the owner's money by asking them to repeat randomly-generated numbers. Someone else can't access the numbers beforehand or circumvent the voice recognition element."

"Remember, these assistants are meaningful only when connected to the Internet, which is not a safe place at all. A number of recent global hacks have exposed the cyber-weakness of many governmental organizations and so it’s reasonable to assume that our home cyber security is not better than theirs."

Tmall is one of China's most popular online shopping platforms. /VCG Photo

Fighting for a slice of the pie?

Alibaba is marketing the Tmall Genie as a limited beta release to provide the company with consumer feedback ahead of mass release.

And its price tag of 499 RMB (around 73 US dollars) will make it one of the cheapest on the market, inevitably sparking a battle with Baidu and JD.com for a share of the market.