The 2021 Of The Sweeping Robot Market: The Back Wave Is Surging, The Front Wave Is A Headache

In the blink of an eye, 2021 is drawing to a close, and 2022 is just around the corner. Looking back on the past year, it is destined to be an extraordinary year, especially for the sweeping robot industry, many major events have occurred in 2021, which will have a profound impact on the industry. Today we come to inventory and review.

Technology changes life, sweeping robots gather at CES2021

On January 11, CES 2021 officially opened. Affected by the epidemic, this year's CES exhibition was conducted online and offline. Judging from the new sweeping robots released by major manufacturers, there are still bright spots to be found. For example, Samsung's JetBot AI Plus robot vacuum cleaner, Bot Care personal assistant robot and Bot Handy robot brought by Samsung at this year's CES show, which can clean up messes and move things around the house; Roborock S7, a robot vacuum cleaner exhibited by Roborock Technology, Equipped with 2500 Pa high suction power and 5200mAh large battery, it can be used for up to 3 hours in "quiet" mode and low water mop setting; Baole exhibited an AI household sweeping robot and an automatic dust collection base station, which are two new products at the intelligent level and cleaning ability have excellent performance.

Comments: The CSE exhibition is regarded by the industry as the vane of technological development. Among the mobile robot exhibits, in addition to the sweeping robot, LG also launched its CLOi ultraviolet disinfection robot, the killing robot Coro-bot and the companion robot. It can be seen that in the field of mobile robots, in addition to cleaning robots, they have begun to be free from certain specific presentation forms. From industry to business, the tentacles of mobile robots have extended to all aspects.

As can be seen from the new products exhibited by Samsung, Stone and Baole, sweeping robots have made breakthroughs in cleaning power, intelligence and object recognition technology. It is a pity that these brands have not seen the phenomenon of new products "igniting" the market this year. In the future, with the maturity of various technologies such as sensors, AI, big data, 5G, etc., the industrial chain of sweeping robots may explode with strong vitality.

iRobot launches Roomba i series, dust collectors and sweepers are getting hotter

On February 25, iRobot, an American home robot company, released Roomba®i3+/i4+ sweeping robots in China. The new product adopts intelligent planning and navigation, and is equipped with the Clean base™ automatic dust collection system that can automatically take out garbage, bringing users a rich and personalized cleaning experience provided by the iRobot Genius™ home intelligent platform.

Comments: iRobot was an American military enterprise in its early years. In 2002, iRobot launched the Roomba sweeping robot, creating a new category of household cleaning robots. In 2021, iRobot will launch a dust collector and sweeper in the Chinese market, which can be said to be a product innovation of the company. However, in the domestic sweeping robot industry, dust collectors are no longer new at this time. Brands including Pusanick, Xiaomi, Stone, Zimi, Ecovacs and Midea have launched such products.

In terms of technology, the automatic dust collector and sweeper has dual-air duct dust collection, rear suction dust collection and dust collection bucket design without consumables. These products do not require consumers to dump the garbage in the dust collection box of the sweeping robot. Every time the user cleans the ground with the automatic dust collecting and sweeping machine, the automatic dust collecting and charging base can automatically empty the dust in the dust collecting box of the sweeping robot, without the user's manual cleaning intervention, which further frees the hands. It is a pity that this year, even with iRobot blessing the track, such products have not caused a splash in the market, and they are in a state of "high product popularity but low sales".

Ecovacs shareholders liquidation-style reduction, behind the thought-provoking

On July 13, Ecovacs disclosed the shareholder reduction plan. The first shareholder, Taiyikai Electric Co., Ltd., plans to reduce its holdings of 10,279,616 shares through centralized bidding transactions and block transactions. It is expected that the reduction will not exceed 1.80% of the company's total share capital. Not long after the major shareholder's clearance-style reduction, on July 23, Ecovacs started diving, and within half an hour, it was firmly sealed on the limit-down board. The market value has evaporated by 12.1 billion yuan from the previous day and 34.4 billion yuan from the highest point. Many people in the industry sighed that as the original shareholder of Ecovacs, Tai Yikai's reason behind the continuous reduction of holdings is thought-provoking.

Comments: In fact, it is not the first time that Taiyikai has reduced its shareholding in Ecovacs. In 2019, Taiyikai has already begun to gradually reduce its holdings. The movement of this reduction was too large and attracted the attention of many stakeholders. Under normal circumstances, there may be two reasons for major shareholders to reduce their holdings, one is the need for funds, and the other is lack of confidence in the company's future development, hoping to cash out and stop losses. In the A-share environment, the reduction of long holdings is also regarded by some investors as "cutting leeks". According to the announcement, Taiyikai plans to reduce its holdings because of its "own capital needs", but "funding needs" and "profit-taking" are not contradictory.

Judging from the reduction of Cobos shareholders several times, it is not ruled out that it is due to financial considerations. After all, Cobos' share price has risen from a little over 10 billion to more than 100 billion in market value. After the restricted shares are lifted, it is impossible to Shareholders want to cash in. Judging from the recent financial report released by Ecovacs, its investment in marketing is higher than that in research and development. Many industry insiders complained that Ecovacs’ R&D investment does not meet the title of a technology company, and its R&D investment ratio is only at the lowest line of international standards.

In recent years, Ecovacs has made a series of adjustments, including gradually withdrawing from the original service robot OEM business and withdrawing from the domestic low-end sweeping robot market, which has affected its revenue and net profit growth to a certain extent.

Ecovacs' small cleaning appliances, in addition to sweeping robots and window cleaners (so far, have not contributed to the company's profits), and floor washing machines (sub-brand Timco). In the first half of 2021, the Timco brand achieved sales revenue of 2.037 billion yuan, accounting for 38.01% of Ecovacs' total revenue; net profit was 410 million, accounting for 48% of Ecovacs' total profits. During the 618 E-commerce Festival, Timco achieved sales of 900 million yuan. Tim became famous in the first two years of its establishment and became a strong support for Ecovacs' profitability.

In the foreign market of sweeping robots, Ecovacs’ journey to the sea was not smooth sailing. For example, in the North American market, according to public statistics, although Ecovacs strives to catch up with brands such as iRobot and Shark, there is still a gap compared with Shark's share; and in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market, Stone Technology Bike Voss laid out earlier, and Ecovacs' market share was behind.

Ecovacs has also launched many new sweepers in recent years, but there are no popular products. The establishment of a sub-brand of Timke seems to be a new category (scrubber) to expand the territory. In fact, it is also a necessary means for Ecovacs to deal with the slowdown in the growth of sweepers and seek new profits. In the author's opinion, cleaning small home appliances is a new track, with product updates and iterations very fast, and more and more entrants. Such as Roborock Technology, Cloud Whale Intelligence, Xiaomi and Zimi, etc. are all "heroes" in this track. Ecovacs can only meet the challenges brought by changes in demand by rushing to the forefront of the industry. In the next 3 years, if Ecovacs cannot make a breakthrough in the field of sweeping robots, its lack of corporate growth will soon be highlighted, and it is only a matter of time before it will be overtaken by other brands.

Cloud Whale releases new product J2, once again leading the new market trend

On September 25, the second generation of Cloud Whale was announced on Tmall Live. According to the official introduction, the second generation of Yunjing has functions such as automatic water loading and unloading, automatic addition of cleaning liquid, automatic backwashing mop, automatic hot drying mop, and radar 360-degree low-profile anti-card. Among them, for the industry, the automatic up and down water function once again breaks through the technological innovation of the fully automatic sweeper industry and leads the new development of the industry.

Comments: After a lapse of two years, Yunjing released the second product J2 based on the original product, which has functions such as automatic water supply and water supply and automatic addition of cleaning fluid. Compared with the automation of the sweeping function, it is more complicated to realize the automation of mopping. The highlight of the Cloud Whale J2 is the addition of the optional "up and down water" module. This time the user does not even need to change the water, and the robot will never stop working because of forgetting to change the water tank. The addition of the "Water and Water Module" further automates the sweeping and mopping robot, and at the same time lowers the user's threshold for use, and completely realizes the full automation of the mopping function. Cloud Whale uses innovative technology to refresh users' original cognition of sweeping and dragging robots, improve user experience, and once again lead the new development of the industry.

Yunjing Intelligent was established in 2016. After three years of research and development, it has developed a sweeping and mopping robot J1 with the function of "mopping self-cleaning". The product was officially launched in the domestic market on Double 11 in 2019, and it exceeded 1,000 on Tmall on the first day. 10,000 sales, become famous in one battle. Since the launch of the Cloud Whale J1, many sweeping robot brands have been interested in the "base station + robot" model. Brands including Roborock Technology, Xiaomi, Ecovacs and Zhimi are all following up the sweeping and dragging robots in the "base station + robot" mode.

During June 18 this year, Yunjing J1 achieved a sales performance of over 100 million in 9 minutes on the day it went on sale; the new product J2 released at the end of September this year has sold more than 70,000 monthly; 150 times sales. In addition to its popularity in the consumer market, Yunwhale Intelligence is also favored by the capital market. At present, it has completed the C round of financing. Investors include Source Code Capital, ByteDance, Sequoia Capital, etc.

Why can the cloud whale sweeping and mopping robot attract the attention of consumers? The main reason is that it has a clean mopping effect and does not require users to wash the mop by hand. After it mops the floor, it can automatically return to the base station to clean the mop. Free the user from the "semi-automatic" mopping state, allowing the sweeping and mopping robot to mop the floor fully automatically. Cloud Whale took the lead in realizing the self-cleaning function of the mop, redefines the consumer market's perception of sweeping robots, and brought a new development direction to the industry.

The author found that in addition to making good products, Yunjing Smart has also begun to pay attention to online live broadcast marketing. At present, it has formed a live broadcast matrix of "brand self-broadcast + Daren live broadcast + Tmall official live broadcast", attracting audiences through live broadcast display and detailed product explanations, increasing the exposure of brands and products, and gradually boosting sales.

Pursuit received 3.6 billion yuan in financing, and the market for sweeping robots is more than 100 billion yuan

On October 20, ZMI Technology announced that it had received 3.6 billion yuan in Series C financing. This round of investment was led by Huaxing New Economy Fund and CPE Yuanfeng, followed by Strategic Investment from Country Garden Ventures, followed by Yunfeng Fund and Panze Assets, and additional investment from old shareholders Xiaomi Group, Shunwei Capital and IDG Capital. After this round of financing, at the technical level, ZMI Technology will continue to invest in high-speed digital motors and AI algorithms. On the product side, ZMI has begun to further explore more high-speed motor application fields.

Comments: For high-tech companies, the integration of essential technology and life is the way to go. As a smart clean home appliance company, the company has raised 3.6 billion in its Series C round, making it the largest financing in the field of small home appliances since 2021. About half of the research and development teams that follow are from Tsinghua and other science and engineering universities. The characteristics of these people's work are quantification and precision. Therefore, we see that the products we are pursuing are rotating very fast. In the process of using the products, the user experience effect is good, which drives the product reputation.

At present, ZUMI sweepers and other products are in the limelight in China, but most of its products are sold overseas, including the United States, France, Russia, Japan and South Korea, etc. The overseas market has become the second leg of ZUMI.

Whether in the secondary market or the primary market, investors are optimistic about the sweeping robot. In 2021, there have been more than 10 financings for cleaning robot companies, and almost every brand has tens of millions of financing. On May 26, the sweeping robot brand Wah Li announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in A round financing; on June 15, Lesheng Smart announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in round A financing; on July 19, Yuli completed 50 million yuan in round A financing Financing; on September 21, Trifo completed the C1 round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan; in October, the pursuit technology completed the C round of financing of 3.6 billion yuan, setting a new industry financing record; in November, Beetle Smart announced that it has completed two rounds of financing, and the overall financing amount billions.

Earlier, many research institutions said that the market for cleaning robots is a market of 100 billion yuan. UBS's forecast also said that by 2025, the global and Chinese market size of sweeping robots will reach 13 billion and 5 billion US dollars respectively. According to CITIC Securities' "Mechanical Industry Sweeping Robot Industry Special" report, the penetration rate of domestic sweeping robots in urban households is still less than 8%, which means that the sweeping robot market is a "gold mine" yet to be tapped.

The author thinks that when the cleaning robot can really replace the human to complete the cleaning work, the cleaning robot will become a household necessity like a washing machine. Home robot companies need to "understand people" in order to serve people, and the essence of understanding requires technology accumulation, and opportunities often arise from variables. Previously, Roborock Technology won the recognition of consumers and the market with its self-developed laser navigation technology, and Yunjing Smart also broke through the siege with its "mopping cloth self-cleaning" technology, and its market value increased by more than ten times. The sweeping robot is a highly competitive track, but as long as an enterprise can seize a pain point in sweeping and mopping and make a breakthrough, it means that there is a great opportunity to seize the traffic password and monetize it through new products.

Double 11 clean electrical appliances show high growth, with overall sales of 5.53 billion yuan

Aowei Cloud (AVC) online monitoring data shows that during the double 11 period, the overall sales of clean electrical appliances were 5.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%, and the retail volume was 3.152 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%. In terms of market segments, sweeping robots and washing machines have become dual engines driving the growth of cleaning appliances. Among them, self-cleaning sweeping robots have grown rapidly. Double 11 accounted for 75% of the overall sweeping robots. The performance of washing machines during Double 11 Not bad.

Comments: The rise of clean small household appliances, in addition to the health factors brought about by the epidemic, the substantial improvement of industry technology and the upgrade of consumers' quality of life are also crucial elements to promote the rapid growth of the industry. In the past two years, the increase in product functions and technological upgrades of sweeping robots have stimulated consumer demand to a certain extent. For example, the self-cleaning mop function, after mopping the floor, the sweeping and mopping robot does not need the consumer to manually wash the rag. The sweeping and mopping robot can clean the rag when it returns to the base station, freeing the user's hands. Another example is AI recognition, which solves the obstacle avoidance problem of the sweeping robot for small objects, allowing the product to better complete cleaning tasks in complex home environments.

The rise of cleaning small appliances is inseparable from the "home economy" and "lazy economy". For young consumers, they are willing to pay for a convenient life. For most young people, doing housework is a waste of life, and sweeping and mopping the floor with a mopping robot can free up more time for them to enjoy life.

At present, all high-end sweeping and mopping robots on the market can realize self-cleaning mopping or automatic dust collection, bringing users a convenient lifestyle. It is precisely because of these powerful functions that it has driven the high growth of the sweeping robot category and has become the general trend of the industry. According to public data, the proportion of retail sales of products in the 3,000+ segment of the sweeping robot market increased during the Double 11 period. The average price of self-cleaning products was 4,289 yuan, while the average price of non-self-cleaning products was only 1,745 yuan. During the double 11 period, self-cleaning products The sales of cleaning robots accounted for 75%, an increase of 59 percentage points over the same period last year.

From the data point of view, the domestic sweeping robot industry is undergoing qualitative changes, and companies are making efforts to the high-end market. In the past two years, sweeping robot companies have launched high-end products, and high-end products in the market