(Yicai Global) Feb. 21 -- iRobot, once the world’s largest sweeping robot company, has gradually been pushed aside in the Chinese market by local competitors, with its share of the domestic online sales market falling to just 0.4 percent last year.

The top three brands by market share in China’s online sweeping robot market in 2022 were Chinese firms Ecovacs, Roborock and Narwal, with US-based iRobot down in 11th place, according to data provided to Yicai Global by the industry analysis website AVC. Ecovacs had a market share of nearly 40 percent.

Five or six years ago, iRobot had confidence in the Chinese market. Its founder Colin Angle came to China almost every year to give speeches at universities and attend iRobot’s new product launches. But since 2021, iRobot has gradually been overtaken by Chinese manufacturers.

According to its latest results, iRobot’s global revenue fell 24 percent to USD1.18 billion (about CNY8.1 billion) last year, and the company had a net loss of nearly USD290 million.

“The common problem of foreign brands in China’s cleaning electrical appliance market is that they cannot adapt to the conditions here,” said Tian Yali, general manager of the cleaning electrical division of AVC. They bring foreign products to China, Tian noted, but there is then “a lack of localized marketing.” 

One example is that the standard home flooring in China is different from the United States. Carpets are common in the US, but Chinese homes generally have hard floors such as tiles so the integrated sweeping and mopping function of Chinese robots is welcomed. But iRobot only offers separate sweeping robots and floor wiping robots, believing that this makes the products more effective.

Wang Hui, general manager of Dreame, told Yicai Global that Chinese makers are also catching up with foreign rivals in terms of core component technologies. For example, high-speed motors spinning at 160,000 revolutions per minute have been mass-produced since September 2021, and motors with speeds of up to 200,000 rpm will be coming soon.

China’s sweeper robots have also caught up in terms of laser navigation and smart algorithms.

iRobot has cut its prices in the Chinese market this year but the products are still not that competitive in their corresponding price segments, so the firm is facing an uphill battle in China.

Editor: Tom Litting