Industry Observation | Sweeping Robot Q1 Double Drop Under the "Big Fish Eat Small Fish", who will benefit?

Financial Associated Press, April 26 (reporter Ren Chaoyu), into 2022, the epidemic and logistics obstacles and other impacts on the clean industry cluster belt, resulting in a double drop in the amount of sweeping robot Q1. The data shows that the competition between companies in the industry is becoming increasingly fierce, the sales expense rate and R & D expense rate are increasing year by year, and the plot of "big fish eating small fish" is being staged.

Analysts told the Financial Associated Press that it is expected that the scale of the sweeping robot industry will increase year-on-year in 2022. The reporter observed that although the growth rate of the Q1 revenue scale of the head company has slowed down, it is still better than the market. With multiple advantages, the head company may be able to eat the "competitive dividend".

Sweeping robot Q1 volume double decline Is expected to increase in 2022

Entering 2022, the epidemic and logistics obstacles have impacted the clean industry cluster, resulting in a double decline in the Q1 volume of sweeping robots. The total data provided by Aowei Cloud Network to the Financial Associated Press shows that the sales of 22Q1 sweeping robots fell by 2.8% year-on-year, and sales fell by 38% year-on-year.

"At present, the impact of the epidemic and logistics is still quite large, and the cleaning industry cluster belt represented by Shenzhen and Suzhou has experienced a severe epidemic in Q1 this year, including delivery and production," Liu Hongtao, research director of the big data division of Aowei Cloud Network (AVC), told reporters.

In addition, the average price of sweeping robot products will increase rapidly in 2021. The data shows that the average online price has increased from 1500-2000 yuan in January 2021 to about 3000 yuan in March 2022. This is mainly due to the obvious high-end of sweeper products, and self-cleaning + self-dust collection products have become a new trend.

However, high unit prices will also inhibit demand to some extent. Liu Hongtao told reporters that it is expected that the sales of the sweeping robot industry will grow positively in 2022, but the sales volume will decline. The increase in the amount is reflected in the upgrading of products, the increase in average prices, the reduction of the main price is too high, and the demand is insufficient.

As the only two listed companies in the sweeping robot industry, the performance of Coworth and Stone Technology has become a weather vane for observing industry trends. The Financial Associated Press reporter noted that although the performance of Coworth and Stone Technology in Q1 of 2022 has achieved a certain increase, the growth rate has been slowing down.

However, compared with the industry, the Q1 performance of Coworth and Stone Technology is better than that of the market. Coworth told the Financial Associated Press that the company's 2022 Q1 private label business growth rate of more than 60% year-on-year, ahead of the industry growth rate and in the industry at a high level, the follow-up sweeper industry long-term growth to maintain confidence and optimism.

The industry's "inner volume" Competition pattern is changing

Under the "new normal" of the overall incremental decline in 2022, the industry may move towards the competitive pattern of "big fish eating small fish", and the growth space of companies in different positions in the industry is likely to be greatly differentiated.

The latest data from Aowei Cloud shows that the overall concentration of the industry's TOP4 brands has further increased. Long-tail brands other than the TOP10 still had an 11.3% market share last year, and only 3.4% in Q1 2022.

(Source: Aowei Cloud Network)

The reason is that in addition to the strong financial strength of the head enterprise and willing to invest in marketing, research and development, technology has also become a significant barrier. Hillhouse Capital has publicly stated that the complexity of sweeping robot products is high, and there are core competitiveness in technology and supply-side processes.

A practitioner who works for a sweeping robot head company told the Financial Associated Press reporter: "In terms of patent barriers, the United States IROOT is an industry bigwig, the first-mover advantage is more obvious, the patent reserve is more, the scope of protection is also large, everyone is more concerned; Coworth, Stone and other brands on the one hand need to avoid the first patent, looking for a new direction, on the one hand, they are constantly improving and improving their own technology, and the current patent reserve is rising." Between domestic and foreign enterprises, there are patent disputes, there are also patent cooperation, such as Coworth and ILOBOT should have cross-licensing. ”

He went on to say that one of the core technologies is SLAM technology - real-time positioning and map building. The software aspect mainly needs to overcome this technology, which can determine whether the robot is intelligent or not.

Cloud Whale Intelligence also told the Financial Associated Press that IROBOT is indeed a pioneer in the category of sweepers and has a first-mover advantage in technology. But in recent years, the technology of China's sweepers has also become better and better, and it has slowly established its own technical advantages, and even has advantages in lds laser navigation, route planning algorithms, and functional innovation. For the category of sweeper, which is very intelligent and has very high technical requirements, if the newly entered brand wants to stand firm in the market, it must have a solid core technology and unique differentiated functional innovation, so that there will be recognition and it is possible to open the market.

"The sweeping robot technology is mature, and the trend of high-end, intelligent and automation of products will be further strengthened in the future." From the perspective of the ultimate form of the category, the automatic water supply and sewing function is the only way for the product. In September last year, Yun Whale J2 took the lead in realizing the automatic water supply and sewerage function, and for the first time in the industry, it introduced on-site installation services on a large scale, and established a mature and standard on-site service system through one year of exploration. This year, Stone Technology and Coworth have also announced the realization of the automatic water supply and sewage function, and they also need to start door-to-door service. The on-site service experience will also become an important competitive factor in the sweeping robot category. Cloud Whale Intelligence said so.

Overall, the opportunity for sweeping robot tracks still exists, but it is not easy to fight. At present, the market share of head companies is more "turbulent", and not all TOP4 brands are in the list of share growth. In the end, who can maintain the "status of the jianghu" or even "go further" needs to continue to be observed.