Deep Sound Original · The author | Li Jinglin
As early as 2007, Bill Gates predicted that in the near future, every home will have a robot.
This dream is now gradually becoming a reality, and many service robot products have entered many families. The gradual expansion of the consumer market indicates that the inflection point of change in the service robot industry has been clearly placed in front of us - today, service robots are moving towards a 3.0 era that is more intelligent and emphasizes human-computer interaction capabilities.
On the technical side, perception and algorithmic technologies such as machine learning, visual recognition, and natural language processing, as well as big data technologies at the basic layer of artificial intelligence, are the core driving forces for the industry to move forward. In the 3.0 era, the further development of human-computer interaction technology focuses on the satisfaction of differentiated needs, service robots are not only a simple superposition of functions, the process of interaction between robots and service objects will be more concerned.
At the consumption level, the current service robot is still a certain distance away from truly liberating consumers' hands and becoming just needed. In addition to the need to continue to evolve at the technical level, companies also need to invest in the popularization and education of the consumer market. Observing the service robot track, we must not only measure from the hardware level, but also discuss its value from the dimension of social intelligence and digital trend.
Wind objects should be looked at for a long time. Whether it is a technological breakthrough or market education, it requires enterprises to invest a lot of time and cost. Service robots are a high-input track, starting from the upstream, and almost every link needs to have sufficient financial support. The establishment of industry consensus is hard work, but also slow work, the starting point of all efforts, it falls on the research and development link.
On April 22, Coworth Group released its financial reports for the full year 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, while redefining the brand's mission and vision. Dismantling the development trajectory of Coworth, we can see the trends and changes in the sweeping robot industry.
Guardian of the strength of the Technical Highlands
For the whole year of 2021, Coworth maintained rapid growth at the performance level. In 2021, the total revenue of Covos reached 13.086 billion yuan, up 80.90% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the mother was 2.010 billion yuan, an increase of 213.51% year-on-year. During the reporting period, the profitability of Coworth also improved, with a comprehensive gross profit margin of 51.41%, an increase of 5.88 percentage points year-on-year.
From the perspective of financial data, Coworth is undoubtedly the "number one player" in the service robot and smart life appliance track. The reason is that R&D strength and production capacity advantages are fundamental.
R&D investment is a visual representation of an enterprise's technical level. In 2021, Coworth invested a total of 549 million yuan in research and development, an increase of 62.45% year-on-year. R&D expenses are always at the forefront of the industry. R&D researchers are the core competitiveness of a manufacturing enterprise, as of 2021, Coworth has a total of 1197 R & D personnel, accounting for 15.24% of the company's total number.
It's clear that the high investment pays off. As we all know, the core of robot products relies on cutting-edge technologies such as chips, sensors, visual perception, and voice interaction, and in these areas, Coworth is at the forefront of the industry.
Sweeping robot is the core fist product of the Coworth brand, in the home use scenario, intelligent positioning and navigation technology can enable the robot to walk autonomously, avoid obstacles and successfully reach the destination even in the case of no one controlling, which is the basis for this category of products to solve the pain points of use. Coworth is the earliest household service robot brand in China that has both LDS-SLAM and V-SLAM dual navigation technology routes, and its self-developed TrueMapping 2.0 technology has also greatly improved efficiency compared with traditional laser navigation.
In order to improve the product's obstacle avoidance ability, Coworth has developed a number of technologies, including AIVI artificial intelligence and visual recognition technology, which also makes Coworth the first brand in the industry to apply artificial intelligence technology to sweeping robot products.
In addition, YIKO AI voice assistant technology allows users to talk to robots by using natural language, and OMNI STATION includes a number of clean technologies to bring convenience to users.
It is not difficult to see that the trend of intelligence has become a just need in the field of service robots.
For enterprises, improving the level of intelligence of products and services through the combination of software and hardware will be the core of enterprises to establish differentiated value in fierce competition. The intelligent service robot industry has both the attributes of scientific and technological products and the attributes of consumer goods. On the basis of deep insight into consumer needs, enterprises need to enhance the ability of integrated development of production and research, and constantly enrich and improve their product composition, so as to achieve a greater goal of industrial layout.
Founded in 1998, Coworth has been the leader in the field of intelligent cleaning, from the early foundry model to the establishment of independent brands, and then to the technology-driven brand, and now firmly occupies the position of the first echelon of the industry, by 2021, the revenue of Coworth's own brands has exceeded 90%.
The integration of production and research is the key to Coworth's establishment in the industry. Based on its own supply chain and manufacturing strength, Coworth has developed a mature independent industrial chain such as motors, batteries, core accessories, etc., so that it can truly achieve R&D and manufacturing, and quickly promote a scientific and technological product from concept to mass production and then to thousands of households and market.
In the past 24 years, Coworth has introduced complete robot service solutions to the global market, including DEEBOT, a household sweeping robot, WINBOT, an air purification robot, and "AI+ service robot" products for the public sector. Supported by core technology, diversified product structure constitutes a moat for Coworth in the industry.
From the perspective of detailed disassembly, the products with different positioning points point to a specific use scenario or consumption pain point. The development of service robots still has unresolved pain points - whether in commercial or household use scenarios, personalized services for multiple scenarios and the potential for further liberation of manpower have yet to be tapped, which is the only way for the industry to move towards the ideal of "human-machine coexistence".
There is no shortcut to solve the pain points, All in research and development, with scientific and technological capabilities rather than labor input in exchange for industry bargaining space, enterprises can go steady and far. This is a general consensus in the field of wide-ranging service robots. For example, DJI, which occupies 70% of the global market share in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, is willing to spend money in key areas, and its R& D investment accounts for up to 15% of total revenue.
China has a unique supply chain advantage in the manufacturing field and a unique huge consumer market, but if it wants to grow into a world-class company, it needs to upgrade from manufacturing to "intelligent manufacturing". R&D is where the core competitiveness lies.
Let the robot serve everyone
Technology solves product problems, and industrial layout determines the coverage of products and even a brand.
Dr. Wang Xin, Global Partner, Vice President of Global Market Strategic Planning and President of China, has pointed out that the popularity of artificial intelligence has not decreased, all aspects of technology continue to advance, as the best carrier of artificial intelligence technology, the downstream application scenarios of service robots are increasing. Service robots meet people's new consumer demand for smart homes and convenient lives, and are expected to become a popular industry in the macro context of consumption upgrading, and the development prospects are very broad.
The data level also supports Dr. Wang Xin's assertion. Globally, sales of service robots have reached $9.46 billion in 2020, and global sales of service robots are expected to reach $20.18 billion by 2023. China is the global service robot center, in 2021 China's service robot output of 9.2144 million sets, an increase of 48.9% year-on-year, the market size is approaching 40 billion yuan, is expected to reach 75.18 billion yuan by 2023. At present, China's service robot market has accounted for more than 1/4 of the global market.
The optimism of the market environment has also given enterprises in the industry greater confidence. Just at the time of the earnings report, Coworth proposed a new brand mission: let robots serve everyone.
Ambitious missions require more grounded measures to be achieved. Based on R&D, Coworth has achieved evolution at the two levels of "depth" and "breadth" through industrial layout.
First of all, at the "breadth" level, Coworth is constantly deepening into overseas markets. In 2021, the total revenue of Coworth's overseas business reached 4.718 billion yuan, accounting for 36.05% of the total revenue. Among them, the overseas business of Coworth and Tim Coco' two major independent brands increased by 60.26% and 180.65% respectively year-on-year. In its 2021 annual report, Coworth wrote that "the company has now established an operating network with the United States, Germany and Japan as the core, covering major markets around the world", and so far, Coworth has developed 145 national and regional markets.
At the "depth" level, as an industry leader, Coworth has also assumed its own brand responsibility, driving the development of the industry while focusing on improving the market penetration of service robots.
Once again, technical competence plays a decisive role in this process. The investment in the technical level may be very large in the early stage, and the results are difficult to reflect immediately, but as a manufacturing enterprise, once the core technology is broken, it is like opening up the second pulse of Ren Dou and passing through all the links. Coworth's intelligent interaction technology in sweeping robots, window cleaners, purifiers and other products can be migrated to other categories for extended use.
Such experience is undoubtedly something that other companies, even cross-domain companies, can learn from.
Coworth is also feeding the robot industry through its influence. In October 2021, Coworth launched the intelligent sensor brand "KRUISEE Krypton", relying on Coworth's R & D capabilities, continuously focusing on intelligent sensor technology and products, and providing software and hardware integration solutions to serve richer market segments and continuously broaden business areas.
As a result, Coworth has also entered the upstream of the industrial chain, and its lidar products are mainly delivered to the service robot industry. According to public information, as of October 2021, the cumulative shipment of lidar has exceeded 4 million sets. At the same time, Krypton's lidar products have been applied in large quantities on Coworth service robots.
Through the layout at the two levels of "depth" and "breadth", Coworth has extended the tentacles of the business to a wider direction, and has also opened up a long-distance run that requires more competition for internal strength and endurance.
In fact, in any industry, there must be sprints and long runs. However, with the improvement of consumer demand and the changes in the environment of the times, there will undoubtedly be fewer and fewer sprint tracks that can be instantly satisfied, and enterprises need to adhere to long-term values, cultivate endurance, and create greater social value.
The prospects are broad and the goals are ambitious. After experiencing rapid fission and development in the Chinese market, service robots will gradually enter the deep water area and move towards the mission of further enhancing popularity and realizing the mission of "letting robots serve everyone". In the process of becoming the world's top robot company, the head enterprise must not only enhance its own hard power and maintain its brand advantage, but also look far ahead and jointly promote the evolution of the industry.