Founder of Cloud Whale Intelligence: Only five companies may survive in the future of the sweeping robot market

Tech 2023-10-10 18:20:10 Source: Network

Interface News Reporter | Lu KeyanCloud Whale Intelligence, which has squeezed into the first tier of the sweeping robot market, experienced its biggest challenge since its establishment last year - having to face marketing competition and plagiarism chaos almost regardless of cost in the industry. At the same time, it has been questioned by the outside world for its single product portfolio and slow progress speed

Interface News Reporter | Lu Keyan

Cloud Whale Intelligence, which has squeezed into the first tier of the sweeping robot market, experienced its biggest challenge since its establishment last year - having to face marketing competition and plagiarism chaos almost regardless of cost in the industry. At the same time, it has been questioned by the outside world for its single product portfolio and slow progress speed.

This also forces the Cloud Whale to accelerate its pace. We will fight even harder. Three new products have been released this year, and there will be more diverse categories next year, "Zhang Junbin, founder and CEO of Cloud Whale Intelligence, said in a recent interview with Interface News.

In just one year, there has been a round of reshuffle in the sweeping robot market, with brands such as Neato withdrawing one after another. Even star companies such as Stone Technology and Kovos are facing a decline in revenue. According to data from OviCloud, 4.41 million domestic sweeping robots were sold in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 24%.

The market space becomes narrower, and competition often becomes more intense. Since last year, Zhang Junbin has habitually browsed social media before going to bed every night, watching user feedback and reviews, and comparing the differences in marketing content between his friends and Yun Jing. He bluntly stated that the market is too big, especially in the marketing war.

Cloud Whale requires higher combat efficiency, and the organizational system established during the entrepreneurial period is no longer able to meet this demand.

Zhang Junbin said that in the past, Yun Jing's gameplay was biased towards individual heroism, where one person led a group of people to charge forward. This model is fine for making one product, but when it comes to making multiple products at the same time, there is simply not enough talent, and people always have limitations, such as incomplete thinking and emotional moments.

For a company of our size (currently with over 1000 employees), if we make a mistake, it will be destroyed. In order to have more products run simultaneously and deliver with quality and quantity, it is necessary to adjust the production and research system

Cloud Whale has made two adjustments at the organizational level. Firstly, sort out the positions from R&D to market, and match each position with the most suitable talent; The second is to reorganize the organizational structure and break through the previous communication barriers between departments. The result of the adjustment is that in the past, one person would be responsible for many tasks, but now the segmentation is clearer, ensuring that everyone can contribute stronger abilities in independent fields.

At the research and development level, Yunjing has been equipped with a standard management system similar to Huawei's IPD (Integrated Product Development) for nearly a year, including user research, product innovation, and mass production development. The cloud whale sweeping and dragging integrated robots J3, J4, and floor washing machine S1 all come from this system.

The S1 floor washing machine, launched in May, is the first new category after the Cloud Whale self sweeping robot. Three months later, J4 and the lower priced J4Lite were released. On October 8th, it also launched the S1MAX floor scrubber.

The selling point of J4 lies in the rolling brush zero winding and light dust collection technology. The initial sweeping robot required users to clean the dust box after each task, and the higher the frequency of use, the higher the cleaning frequency. This is actually a concept that goes against the lazy economy. Yunjing has achieved a larger capacity of dust collection bags with an intelligent light dust collection system, combined with compressed garbage technology, claiming to be free of garbage within 30 days.

Yunjing has also redesigned a cyclone guided rolling brush. Once there is hair entangled, the machine will wind around the conical rod end according to the cyclone, and after winding to the rod end, it can be sucked in by the dust box to prevent excessive hair entanglement and brush failure. This was also the most common problem with brooms in the past.

Zhang Junbin said he still has confidence in the currently not optimistic clean appliance market. In his view, floor cleaning is a necessity, and the penetration rate of the lazy economy will eventually increase exponentially. The sweeping robot industry only needs to undergo some innovations: lower barriers to use, more elderly friendly, stricter quality control, and even lower prices.

The source of price lies in cost. Zhang Junbin stated that cost reduction can be divided into design cost reduction and supply chain cost reduction. If the sales of floor sweepers increase, it is not impossible for the supply chain to reduce costs. The competition for cost reduction in design is still based on technical strength, and the light dust collection system can be considered an attempt.

He predicts that in four to five years, the turning point of the clean appliances market will come, and at that time, only five companies in the industry may be able to survive. In theory, there are basically five companies left in the home appliance industry or even all industries, with the top three eating 70% -80% of the market. We hope that Yunjing is one of them, and only truly innovative companies can stay in the end

Prior to this, Zhang Junbin believed that there was still a key issue to be addressed - plagiarism. COVID-19 CEO Qian Cheng also mentioned that there is a phenomenon of "malicious plagiarism" in the industry. Although the products look highly similar, we believe that users' eyes are bright and we must resolutely resist such behavior.

Our scale is not small anymore, but the cost of safeguarding rights is still very high, and the compensation we receive in the end is insignificant, which may be even more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. If intellectual property rights are not better protected, who will innovate in this industry? "Zhang Junbin called for more comprehensive regulation of the clean electrical industry, which is a major prerequisite for healthy development.

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