"Cloud Whale wants to be the industry's first fully intelligent cleaning robot that can think like a human and be as smart. With a sweep of the camera, Zhang Junbin, founder and CEO of Cloud Whale Intelligence, stood in the middle of the stage and talked about the latest technology and innovation highlights of the product. This is the scene of the new product launch conference held by Cloud Whale Intelligence in Shenzhen in mid-April. On the same day, Cloud Whale Intelligence released the Xiaoyao series of fully intelligent sweeping robots.
From the pricing point of view, the high-end flagship product of Cloud Whale Intelligence, which is known as a revolutionary technology, is expensive, with a price starting at 4999 yuan, which is 200 yuan higher than the starting price of the pioneer flagship V20 launched by Roborock a month ago.
According to official information, the Cloud Whale Xiaoyao series products are superimposed with AI large models and AI binocular vision technology, and are embedded in the intelligent voice assistant driven by NarGPT, a multi-modal large model independently developed by Cloud Whale. As a technology-oriented track, the cleaning appliance industry in which sweeping robots and floor scrubbers are located has higher requirements for technology and quality, which is conducive to building competitive barriers for leading brands in the industry with algorithms and data advantages.
But it is undeniable that this is a fast-changing industry, the margin of innovation is weakening, the homogenization of products is becoming more and more serious, and the current sweeping robot industry has bid farewell to the era of high growth. In contrast, the top companies have diversified their strategic layout or seized the opportunity to sail to the sea and explore new growth points, so as to consolidate their position in the fierce market competition.
How will Cloud Whale Intelligence, which has long been questioned about its single product line and slow to launch new products, tell a new story?
Is the big model a gimmick or a growth point?
As the category with the largest market share in the intelligent cleaning industry, sweeping robots have been picking up year by year in the past year. According to AVC, the retail sales of clean appliances in China will be 34.4 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%, and the retail volume will be 25.34 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5%, while the sales of sweeping robots in the same period will be 13.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10%, and the sales volume will be 4.58 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4%. In comparison, the sales volume of China's sweeping robot market in 2022 will be 4.414 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 23.8%.
2023 clean appliance sales data (source: Aowei cloud network)
Since the beginning of this year, the fierce competition in the sweeping robot industry has not weakened due to the recovery of the market, and players on the track have been competing around product appearance, clean technology, intelligent algorithms, all-round base stations, battery life, etc. Before Cloud Whale Intelligence, clean home appliance brands such as Roborock and Dreame Technology have launched new products with technological iterations.
As the leading brand in China's sweeping robot industry, in the highly competitive home intelligent cleaning market, compared with its peers who frequently launch new products, Yunjing Intelligence's performance in product line updates can be called "restraint". Since its establishment in 2016, in the category of "sweeping robot", before this press conference, Cloud Whale Intelligence had only launched the "J" series, involving four generations and five sweeping robot products.
According to the timeline, in the first four years after its establishment, Yunjing Intelligence only released one product, that is, in 2019, "Double Eleven" launched the industry's first sweeping robot that can wash mops by itselfJ1, occupying the industry's 3500 yuan-3999 yuan product price band. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, it is precisely with this product that the market share of Cloud Whale Intelligence will increase rapidly to 10.5% in 2020, becoming the TOP5 brand online. However, the subsequent launch of J2 by Cloud Whale Intelligence was in September 2021, nearly 2 years after the launch of the first product. In 2022 and 2023, Cloud Whale Intelligence will successively launch the J3 and J4 series. In contrast, as of 2021, Ecovacs, the industry leader, has launched 19 sweeping robot products.
Cloud Whale Sweeping Robot Products. (Source: Cloud Whale Intelligence official website)
Focus on high-quality products or machine sea tactics, small and beautiful or large and complete, do addition or subtraction, there may not be a distinction between high and low, which development route to choose, different entrepreneurs have their own ideas and considerations, and different enterprises also have their own rules of survival. However, there is no absolutely safe route to ensure that the company continues to walk, and the actions of competitors and changes in the market environment often make companies consider changing routes or strategies.
At present, the track of clean electrical appliances has been rapidly involuted, and most of the major brands have adopted strategies such as improving product lines, launching new categories, and cross-border diversification to seek new growth points. For example, Ecovacs has formed a multi-product layout, and its products include not only sweeping robots, but also automatic window cleaning robots, mobile air purification robots and hair dryers, etc.; Roborock has expanded its main business of cleaning electrical appliances, and has also entered the field of integrated washing and drying with the launch of integrated washing and drying machines in February 2023; Dreame Technology has also enriched its multi-product matrix, and recently launched the flagship X40 series of cutting-edge sweeping and mopping, the flagship S30 series of intelligent sweeping and mopping, and the H30 Ultra and H20 floor scrubbers of the lying flat series Ultra, as well as the Pocket high-speed styling hair dryer P10 and other products.
In stark contrast, it was not until May 2023 that Yunjing Intelligence launched a new category, the handheld smart floor scrubber S1, and launched the annual flagship floor scrubber S1 Max in October last year. Obviously, compared with its competitors, the product categories of Cloud Whale Intelligence are not so rich.
"At present, AI large model technology is booming, and it will definitely have a huge impact on the cleaning industry. In the future, cleaning robots will definitely evolve into the form of home service robots, and large-scale model technology will also accelerate the speed of service robots entering every home. In an interview with the International Financial News, Yunjing Intelligence said that as a robot innovation company, Yunjing has always attached great importance to the investment in AI underlying technology, and has also begun to embed large model technology into product research and development. In 2024, Yunjing Intelligence will be based on the two categories of sweeping robots and intelligent floor scrubbers, and the speed of product launch will be further improved, and the product SKUs will be continuously enriched.
It is worth noting that by loading the large model into the sweeping robot, Cloud Whale Intelligence is not "the first person to eat crabs". In August 2023, the new flagship DEEBOT X2 series released by Ecovacs has been equipped with its self-developed "AINA large model". Guo Renjie, CEO of Dreame Technology China, also said before, "This is a fast-changing industry, and every time we make a new feature, we may be able to lead by 9 months at the earliest, and then it will become 6 months, and then 3 months." As a result, the absolute value of technical compounding is decreasing each time, so there are more changes to be made. ”
How to make up for the shortcomings of offline channels?
At present, the intelligent cleaning track presents an obvious head aggregation effect. According to the data of the research agency Aowei Market Compass, in terms of the market share of the online channels of sweeping robots, the industry concentration of the top five brands (Ecovacs, Roborock, Dreame, Cloud Whale, and Xiaomi) exceeds 80%. Among them, the data for March 2024 shows that the market share of Ecovacs sweepers still ranks first, Roborock ranks second with 21.42%, Dreame is 18.34%, and Cloud Whale is 13.05%.
Looking back, compared with Ecovacs and Roborock, as an emerging brand in China's sweeping robot industry, the reason why Cloud Whale Intelligence can emerge in a short period of time is largely due to online channels. At present, the proportion of online direct sales of Cloud Whale Intelligence has reached ninety. According to public information, in the first quarter of 2024, in the proportion of online retail of China's sweeping robots, the market share of Cloud Whale will reach 16.25%, an increase of 2.61% year-on-year.
However, there must be shadows under the sun. With the continuous growth of the market share of Cloud Whale Intelligence, consumer complaints are also increasing. In October 2023, considering that his old sweeping robot has been used for many years, and he needs a product that can have both sweeping and mopping functions, loyal user Li Jin (pseudonym) did not "shop around" too much, and directly bought a Cloud Whale J4 in the official flagship store of Cloud Whale.
On August 15 last year, Cloud Whale Intelligence officially released J4 and J4 Lite two new sweeping and mopping robots, of which J4 is positioned as the flagship model of the year, priced at 4299 yuan. However, in the actual use process, Li Jin found that the J4 often got stuck in the middle of the chair when cleaning the living room, and stuck in the same position for several days in a row. After discovering that this problem continued to occur many times, Li Jin reported to Yunjing customer service and received a response of "It is recommended to set up a forbidden area". On social platforms, some netizens gave Li Jin "advice" that he could hang the chair on the dining table to make the sweeping robot "unimpeded".
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"I want to say, shouldn't this thing be adapted to my life, why should I change my facilities for such a machine, this is unacceptable. In an interview with reporters, Li Jin could not hide his helplessness, "This kind of intelligent electrical products should help consumers make life more convenient, rather than 'adding to the blockage'." ”
In fact,According to the feedback given to reporters by many consumers,For cloud whaleJ4"Complaining"Not only is the obstacle avoidance function error,It also includes system failure、Can't connect to the network,And the problem of high repair rate in the short term after leaving the factory。 According to a Cloud Whale user, he bought the Cloud Whale S1 Max floor scrubber in early March, and used it no more than 10 times, after which the machine gradually had problems such as poor cleaning effect and system failure.
At the end of March, in response to an interview with the reporter of "International Financial News", Yunjing Intelligence said that as a brand, Yunjing attaches great importance to user feedback after the product is launched, and the company continues to pay attention to, follow up and solve the problems that users may encounter in the process of using the product. In addition, the company also mentioned that the after-sales process of sweepers is relatively long, which is a problem faced by the entire industry at present, because of the particularity of this category. The complexity of sweeper products is higher than that of general home appliances, and the home operating environment in which the machine is located is different, so it takes a certain amount of time for troubleshooting and returning to the factory for repair. "At present, the self-operated after-sales service team of Cloud Whale, consumers who buy Cloud Whale products in officially authorized sales channels, all enjoy the same after-sales service. ”
In addition, it is difficult for consumers to find offline physical store experience and after-sales service, which is a common problem faced by many cleaning appliance brands that started online. With the peak of online traffic and the return of consumers to offline, under the intensification of competition, leading brands are accelerating the deployment of offline channel networks to strengthen product interaction and enhance user immersive experience. At the same time, it is also improving the after-sales service system.
In this regard, thanks to years of accumulation, the offline dominant position of the veteran enterprise Ecovacs is temporarily difficult to shake. As of the first half of 2023, the number of domestic offline sales outlets of Ecovacs brand has increased to 1,665. Latecomers are also working hard to make up for the shortcomings of offline channels, taking Dreame Technology as an example, accelerating the pace of offline expansion is its key focus in 2023. According to public data, as of the end of December 2023, Dreame has covered 180+ cities in offline channels in the Chinese market, and the number of stores has exceeded 800, while at the end of 2022, the number of offline stores of Dreame Technology is only about 50-60.
Compared with its peers, Cloud Whale Intelligence does not have an advantage in offline channels. The company told reporters, "In 2024, we will accelerate the layout of offline experience stores in key cities, so that more consumers can get close to sweepers and increase market penetration." In the face of increasingly fierce market competition, Cloud Whale revealed at the press conference that it will further improve the speed of product iteration and new products this year, and accelerate the layout of offline channels, and plan to cover 20 provincial capitals across the country and open 80 stores throughout the year, so that more consumers can experience Cloud Whale's products and services up close.
What are the odds of going to sea?
Aowei Cloud Network once pointed out in the "2023 China Clean Electrical Appliance Industry Analysis Report" that there will be no subversive products in the clean electrical appliance industry in 2023, but more micro-innovation around cleaning efficiency and user experience on the basis of products. Obviously, in the highly competitive market of sweeping robots, in addition to the continuous strengthening of product technology and service experience around user value, the competition between enterprises has been upgraded to a full range of comprehensive competition.
According to UBS data, in 2025, the global and Chinese sweeping robot markets will reach $13 billion and $5 billion respectively. At the beginning of February, a robot industry market person revealed to reporters that compared with other home appliance categories, the sweeping robot industry has more room for improvement in the future, "the current market penetration rate of the sweeping robot industry is still at a relatively low level, less than 10%."
In order to seize more market share, more and more sweeping robot companies are setting their sights on overseas markets with huge demand potential, and Cloud Whale Intelligence is no exception. Zhang Junbin previously told the media that the current domestic sweeping robot pattern is basically stable, and when everyone's interests are aligned to ensure the profit margin of the industry, a stable market period will inevitably be formed, and more emphasis needs to be placed on the overseas market where there is still a lot of space. The global market space is large, with some countries growing by more than 50%.
"The size of the overseas sweeper market is about 2.5 times that of China, and the market is broad at the same time, it is currently in the stage of rising volume and price, not only the penetration rate is increasing rapidly, but the product structure is also in the period of rapid transformation of low-end stand-alone products to base station intelligent navigation, which is expected to jointly pull the scale to achieve rapid growth, and will not soon appear involution. At the end of 2023, Kaiyuan Securities wrote in a research report analyzing the new perspective of the overseas sweeper market that the overseas sweeper market is dominated by North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and Eastern Europe and Latin America are growing rapidly. In 2022, the total size of the overseas sweeper market will be about 4.85 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 17% from 2017 to 2022.
Judging from public information, Cloud Whale Intelligence has only begun to expand overseas business on a large scale since last year, and has laid out markets in more than 30 countries and regions around the world, focusing on North America and Europe, and overseas sales revenue will account for about 10% in 2023.
Similar to improving offline channels, Cloud Whale Intelligence also lags behind its peers in going overseas. As far as the timeline node is concerned, domestic sweeper brands have begun to intensively enter the overseas market around 2018, and as the first Chinese smart cleaning appliance brand to explore the way to the sea, Roborock has gone overseas as early as 2016 with its self-developed LDS lidar and SLAM algorithm. Up to now, its products have been distributed in more than 170 countries and regions around the world, and overseas business has become half of Roborock's revenue.
For Cloud Whale Intelligence, whether the overseas market can become the second growth curve, the answer may only be left to time. However, judging from the current fierce market situation, it is not easy to achieve corner overtaking on this road.