SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it will release a Chinese version of its voice recognition programme Bixby later this month, setting eyes on Asia's largest market.

It marks the third language to be supported by the artificial intelligence (AI) programme along with Korean and English. The official launch is slated for Nov. 30, Samsung said.

The South Korean tech giant kicked off a pilot run of the new edition with some 15,000 Chinese users in August.

While Bixby was first showcased in March, it has been making slow progress to become multilingual as the program faces hurdles in fully comprehending spoken language.

Industry watchers said the launch will help Samsung Electronics to recoup its falling shares in the Chinese handset market.

Amid the rise of local players, Samsung only accounted for roughly 2 percent of the Chinese smartphone market in the third quarter. Industry tracker Strategy Analytics earlier expected the stake to plunge to 1.6 percent in the October-December period.

Samsung Electronics is currently developing more language versions of Bixby, including Spanish and German.-AFP