Image source @ Visual China
Mantis Observation, author 丨 Chen Xiaojiang
In 2021, the new consumer brand of domestic intelligent cleaning will enter the fast lane of development.
On the one hand, due to the impact of the epidemic in the past two years, the "home economy" has accelerated, and people have more days of staying at home, coupled with the prevalence of the "lazy economy" and the enhancement of health awareness, people's use rate and enthusiasm for smart cleaning products have increased significantly.
On the other hand, with the development of technology, the practicality and experience of smart cleaning products have been greatly improved, allowing them to get rid of the previous state of "buying home and eating ash". At the same time, the continuous improvement of national cultural self-confidence and technological self-confidence has boosted the rise of new domestic brands.
The superposition of the two has made many new consumer brands of domestic intelligent cleaning such as Tianke, Stone, Pursuit, and Cloud Whale develop rapidly.
At the same time, in the development of different brands in the past year, they are also facing problems of one kind or another, such as valuation concerns, intensified homogenization of commodities, quality problems, and growth anxieties. And these are all a microcosm of the current development of domestic smart cleaning new consumer brands.
First, intelligent cleaning, crazy gold sucking
Affected by a variety of factors, among the many subdivisions related to smart life, smart cleaning is undoubtedly one of the hottest tracks in 2021.
At the beginning of 2021, Dolphin Society released the "2021 China New Consumption New Domestic Brand TOP100 List", and 10% of the 100 brands on its list belong to the smart home track, second only to food, beauty and personal care and beverages and drinks. Among them, there are four smart home cleaning brands, tianke, stone, chase and cloud whale.
How crazy the smart cleaning track in 2021 is, it can be seen from the previous performance of the capital market. Stone Technology, which landed on the science and technology innovation board in 2020, was called "crazy stone" in 2021, and its stock price once soared to the second highest A-share after Moutai, and together with Moutai became the only two thousand yuan A-share shares.
The market value of Coworth, the parent company of "Tianke", also rose from more than 40 billion yuan at the end of 2020 to 150 billion yuan, doubling several times year-on-year. In the field of domestic home appliances, the market value of 100 billion yuan is actually rare except for a few enterprises such as Gree, Midea, and Haier Zhijia.
In fact, not only Stone Technology and Coworth, but also many companies in the smart cleaning track have attracted much attention in 2021 and are crazy to suck up money.
In 2021, there will be more than 10 financings in the field of sweeping robots alone, and more than half of the financing of more than 100 million yuan will be accounted for. Not long ago, "Chasing Technology" announced that it had obtained a 3.6 billion yuan Series C financing, which was shocking. In addition, Trifo, Beetle Intelligence, Shunzao Technology, etc. will obtain two rounds of financing in 2021, and many companies such as Yuli, Yinxing Intelligence, Lesheng Intelligent, and Wow Li will also obtain financing in 2021.
Behind the favor of capital, the scale of the smart cleaning market is growing rapidly. According to the "Double Eleven" Household Consumption Upgrade Report, in 2021, the sales of smart cleaning appliances on Double Eleven increased by 400% month-on-month, becoming the TOP1 sales of small household appliances, of which the sales of sweeping robots increased by 137% year-on-year.
According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the transaction volume of clean electrical appliances in 2020 increased by 20.2% year-on-year, and the transaction volume in the first half of 2021 increased by 40.2% year-on-year, and the annual clean electrical appliance market will exceed 30 billion yuan, an increase of 26% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of sweeping robots will reach 11.2 billion in 2021, an increase of 20% year-on-year.
The growth rate of the new intelligent cleaning net red "scrubbing machine" is even more gratifying. The same is Aowei cloud network data, in the first quarter of 2021, the scrubber in the cleaning appliance market accounted for 12.6%, an increase of more than 10 times year-on-year, the second quarter of the scrubbing machine sales growth rate of more than 10 times.
The increase in the scale of the industry has also made the valuation and sales volume of new consumer brands of smart cleaning rise.
According to The data of Coworth's financial report, the revenue of Coworth in the first three quarters of 2021 was 8.244 billion yuan, an increase of 99.04% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother and the net profit after deduction of non-net profit were 1.330 billion yuan and 1.215 billion yuan, an increase of 432.05% and 639.04% year-on-year. Stone Technology's revenue in the first three quarters of 2021 was 3.827 billion yuan, an increase of 28.43% year-on-year.
In the view of "Praying Mantis Observation", as the post-90s and post-00s gradually become the main force of consumption, they pay more attention to the quality of life, and under the blessing of lazier, more homely, busier and other characteristics, it will undoubtedly further promote the development of the entire intelligent cleaning industry.
In addition, the penetration rate of sweeping robots in the United States has reached 16%, compared to the domestic penetration rate is still relatively low, even in the developed coastal areas, its penetration rate is only 4.5%, there is still a large room for growth, which has boosted the development of intelligent cleaning tracks.
Second, marketing momentum, technology breakthrough
In addition to the rising demand, the accelerated growth of smart cleaning new consumer brands represented by sweeping robots and scrubbers is also related to the increased marketing of brands.
Taking the sweeping robot as an example, online is the main sales channel, accounting for up to 85%. However, in recent years, with the disappearance of online traffic dividends and the addition of emerging brands, the online marketing war has become increasingly fierce.
Stone Technology will significantly increase marketing investment in 2021, such as hiring traffic star Xiao Zhan to endorse. The data shows that before 2019, the sales expenses of Stone Technology have been maintained below 9%, but in the first three quarters of 2021, its sales expenses were 513 million, and the marketing expense rate exceeded 13.4%, exceeding the 8.13% research and development investment in the same period.
Coworth also spends a lot on marketing and channels, especially in emerging channels such as live broadcasting. According to data, in the first half of 2021, the Total Live Broadcast of Tian washable machine Fuwan 2.0 has a total of 5269 live broadcasts, with 295 people on sale. In dozens of live broadcasts every day, there are many Internet celebrities and celebrity anchors such as Wei Ya, Li Jiaqi, Sydney, Lin Yilun, Ji Jie, Li Jing, Hu Ke, Ye Yiqian and so on.
Similar to Stone and Tim, Cloud Whale Intelligence certainly spends a lot of effort on marketing, and its grass notes that can be seen everywhere on Little Red Book and Douyin are a microcosm. In addition, Yun Whale also hired Liu Tao as a spokesperson and launched it in the live broadcast rooms of Wei Ya, Sydney, Li Jing, Lin Yilun, Ye Yiqian, Hu Ke and so on.
Behind this is the intensification of competition. For example, in the field of sweeping robots, according to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the market share of online channels Coworth, Xiaomi, Stone Technology and Cloud Whale in 2020 is 41%, 16%, 11% and 11% respectively. Coworth is still firmly in the lead, but the market share difference between Xiaomi, Stone and Cloud Whale is not much, and competition has intensified. In addition, the emergence of emerging channels such as Xiaohongshu and live broadcasting and emerging models of carrying goods has also made several people increase their competition in these fields.
In fact, although many sweeping robot brands have been criticized for overmarketing, this is essentially a track for technological breakthroughs. In 2016, Stone Technology opened the market by taking the lead in integrating laser navigation, and the products on the market at that time were still dominated by low-cost visual navigation.
In 2021, in addition to marketing, Stone Technology is also increasing investment in research and development. The data shows that Stone Technology invested 311 million yuan in research and development in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of 80.07% year-on-year, accounting for 8.13% of revenue. From 2018 to 2020, the proportion of research and development of stone technology is 3.83%, 4.59% and 5.81% respectively, which shows that there is still a great improvement. At present, Stone Technology has obtained 730 patents and 1419 patents in the application.
And Cobos can become the industry's first player, but also because of its continuous increase in research and development investment. As the earliest company in China to develop sweeping robot products, Coworth is also the first to launch sweeping and dragging integrated product forms in the industry, and the first enterprise in the world to apply AI artificial intelligence and visual recognition technology, dToF navigation technology, 3D structured light technology and other applications in sweeping robots.
According to the financial report data, in the first three quarters of 2021, Coworth's R&D investment increased by 53.41% year-on-year to 331 million yuan. As of the first half of 2021, Cobos has obtained a total of 1122 patents, the highest in the industry, and its cumulative application for patents is as high as 987, with 1073 R & D personnel. Ranked first in the industry.
R&D investment is ultimately reflected in the competitiveness of products. The Dibao X1 product released by Cobos in September 2021 has been greatly improved in functionality, intelligence and interactivity by innovatively collecting automatic dust collection and automatic washing and mop cloth, and integrating dTof laser navigation and RGBD obstacle avoidance, which has also made it rank first in the top 5 e-commerce platforms in the double 11 list, ranking first in the turnover of single products and the market share of the whole network.
The rise of cloud whales and hunting is also a representative of technological breakthroughs. In 2019, Yun Whale launched the sweeping and mopping machine product Cloud Whale Mop Robot with the function of "automatic cleaning of mop cloth", and in the following two years, it created nearly one billion revenue by relying on only one single product. According to public reports, Yun Whale Intelligent has a scientific research team of more than 100 people, most of whom are from Alibaba, DJI, Foxconn and other enterprises, with rich experience. According to the official website, Cloud Whale has applied for more than 100 technology patents across multiple fields such as SLAM, three-dimensional perception, AI object recognition, robot structure technology, and big data applications.
And the pursuit of a large amount of financing in 2021 is also related to its technical strength. With the vacuum cleaner to cut into the pursuit of intelligent cleaning track, it has a leading edge in high-speed digital motors, VSLAM and other technologies, and has refreshed the speed record of mass production of high-speed digital motors. Since its inception, it is reported that since its inception, more than 12% of its annual sales have been invested in research and development.
Nowadays, the main products include sweeping robots, wireless vacuum cleaners, floor washers, and high-speed hair dryers, and the market covers more than 100 countries or regions such as China, The United States, France, and South Korea. In the first half of 2021, its sales revenue is close to the full year of 2020, an increase of 100% year-on-year.
"Mantis Observation" believes that in general, in the smart cleaning track, domestic new consumer brands have no shortage of marketing momentum in 2021, but they have not slackened in technical investment. Technological breakthrough is still the most important means for players on this track.
With the strength of technology, the new consumer brand of domestic intelligent cleaning not only firmly occupies the domestic market, but also has a bright performance overseas.
At present, Coworth has established online and offline sales channels in more than 130 major countries and regions around the world, and the globalization has become an important strategy of the company, and the sales volume is considerable. According to the data of the GfK sweeping robot retail monitoring report, in the second quarter of 2021, the retail share of The Cobos brand sweeping robot in the global (excluding North American) market reached 21.9%, ranking first. In the first half of 2021, the overseas business revenue of the Coworth brand increased by 134.8% year-on-year, accounting for 31.0% of the revenue.
As of June 30, 2021, Stone Technology's overseas revenue accounted for 80%, and its cumulative sales of sweeping robots were 9.23 million units, ranking third in the global sweeping robot market share. In addition, 70% of the revenue of the pursuit comes from abroad, and its vacuum cleaners and sweeping robots have won the sales championship of products at the same price on AliExpress, Amazon and other platforms.
Third, anxiety is still there
Although 2021 is a year of rapid growth for smart cleaning new consumer brands, it is not a smooth road for various brands. Near the end of 2021, Stone Technology and Coworth did not have the scenery of "sweeping the ground" in the first half of the year, and the market value of the two fell in the second half of the year, nearly half from the highest point in 2021.
Of course, the stock price has many factors, but this is also the other side of the smart cleaning industry - product homogenization is serious, new technologies still have many slots, blood marketing leads to increased revenue and does not increase profits, etc., so that the industry is still full of anxiety.
Taking the scrubbing machine as an example, according to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the market size of the scrubber in 2019 is still less than 100 million yuan, which will soar to 1.29 billion yuan in 2020, and it is expected to exceed 5.3 billion yuan in 2021, and the number of brands will increase from 15 at the end of 2020 to nearly 70 at the end of 2021, which is completely explosive growth and has great growth potential.
According to the data of the seventh national census, as of 2020, the number of households in the country is 490 million, as long as the penetration rate of 5% (about the current penetration rate of household service robots), there are nearly 25 million units, if calculated according to the average price of 2000 yuan, it is nearly 50 billion scale. In addition, compared with the number of sweeping robots reaching 16.19 million units in 2020, the upward space of the scrubber is obviously still very large.
The outbreak and growth potential of the scrubber has brought new opportunities to the industry, attracting many brands such as Timco, Bisheng, OBOT, Midea, Philips, Mofei, Haier and so on. With the advantages of Tim Cos in the field of scrubbers, Coworth has continued to consolidate its leading position, and let "Tim Coco" and "Cobos" brands form a dual engine together.
According to the financial report data of Coworth, the two major brands of Cobos and Tim Coco in the 2021Q3 quarter increased by 67.1% and 297.4% respectively over the same period last year, driving the company's overall business Q3 revenue to increase by 71.07% over the same period last year. From the perspective of retail sales, Tianke intelligent scrubbing machine Fuwan has been listed since March 2021, and after half a year, it has occupied more than 66% of the domestic online scrubbing machine market share.
However, under the rapid outbreak, in the user evaluation of various e-commerce platforms and network complaint platforms, there are also many complaints about the quality of the scrubbing machine, such as exaggerated publicity, impractical, water leakage, low cost performance, not smart enough, and so on.
"Mantis Observation" searched for the keyword "scrubber" on the black cat complaint, showing 168 results, including the inability to charge, the failure of the sewage tank, the direct spitting out of the black water, and the failure of multiple failures after a short time of use. It involves many brands such as Haier, Wanmoore, Bisheng, Speedfox And so on, so this is also a problem that the entire industry needs to solve.
Taking the self-cleaning function as an example, many consumers think that it is exaggerated. If you still need to wash and roll the brush by hand, wipe it clean and have a watermark, and you can't clean the stain at once, the water in the water tank is too small to be added continuously to "self-clean", and some stains stick to the sewage box without manual treatment will stink and other problems.
Compared with the "mentally retarded and unintelligent" of the scrubbing machine, the sweeping robot is slightly better, but for the sweeping and dragging integrated sweeper, similar problems actually exist, and the experience is not good enough, which is still the biggest hard injury of smart cleaning products.
In addition, there is still a problem of product homogenization, and the outbreak of this wave of smart cleaning tracks, which is a big factor affected by the epidemic. When the epidemic is gradually controlled, it remains to be seen whether this driving force can be sustained, which is the anxiety of the new consumer brands of smart cleaning in 2021.