Daily: China’s Food Delivery Robots Are Accelerating Their Move Overseas

"Nihon Keizai Shimbun" article on February 8, original title: China's food delivery robots strengthen their offensive after the new crown epidemic. In order to catch up with the wave of demand after the new crown epidemic, China's food delivery robot giant-Shanghai Qinglang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is making great efforts Expand overseas markets. In 2022, the company will establish three new subsidiaries in Europe and the United States, and plans to increase the proportion of overseas shipments of food delivery robots from about 30% now to 50% by the end of 2025. Other companies in China are also competing on the price and "service" quality of food delivery robots, which are expected to become more popular amid a shortage of manpower.

According to statistics from the American research company IDC, in the service robot market for Chinese restaurants, Qinglang ranks first with a share of about 49% (in 2021), and is also considered one of the leading companies in the industry in the world.
Chinese food delivery robot manufacturers are actively venturing overseas because there is a lot of room for development in overseas markets. Statistics from the China Institute of Electronics and other institutions show that the global market size of service robots including medical, education, catering, etc. is expected to grow to US$25 billion in 2023, an increase of 15% from 2022; in 2022, China’s domestic The service robot market size is approximately 44.776 billion yuan, and is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2023. However, the Chinese market only accounts for nearly 30% of the global market.

In addition, in January 2023, China adjusted its epidemic prevention policy, and the Chinese government announced that the peak period of infection had passed. Against this background, companies such as Qinglang plan to simultaneously promote domestic and foreign growth strategies in the future. The price of Qinglang's food delivery robots is US$10,000-30,000 per unit, which is cheaper than that of Japanese, European and American companies. Wan Bin, the company's chief operating officer, said, "In China, the manufacturing supply chain is complete and parts can be purchased at low prices. Mass production can control manufacturing costs."

Other companies are also launching offensives at home and abroad. A spokesman for Shenzhen Pudu Technology, which ranks second in China's food delivery robot market, said the company has sold more than 56,000 food delivery robots at home and abroad. In the past two years, the company quickly provided 3,000 food delivery robots to about 2,100 stores under a Japanese restaurant chain brand. "Pudu Technology's food delivery robot adopts a cat-shaped design and has simple conversation and other functions, so it is very popular and sells well in Japan." The person in charge of a Japanese robot consulting company commented. In Japan, food delivery robot sales companies import robots manufactured overseas, mainly in China, and Japanese manufacturers are almost invisible.