After less than 7 years of sailing, Beijing Stone Century Technology Co., Ltd. (688169.SH, hereinafter referred to as "Stone Technology") has replaced the American company iRobot to become the number one enterprise in the global sweeping robot industry.

As the inventor of the sweeping robot category, iRobot has long held a leading position in the global market. However, in recent years, with the continuous advancement of technology and the intensification of market competition, iRobot's market share in many markets around the world has gradually declined, and its lost market share has been mainly divided by Chinese brands including Stone Technology.

in the head-to-head confrontation with iRobot, Chinese sweeping robot brands such as chase, cloud whale and cobos have achieved anti-overtaking in the regional market and topped the regional market. According to the research data of Euromonitor international, a market research organization, in 2023, the annual sales of stone technology ranked first in the world.

In the United States, iRobot once had a market share of more than 80%. In its home market, however, Chinese brands are on the rise. According to the magic mirror data of the market research organization, in 2023, five of the top 10 brands in the sales of sweeping robots in the United States were Chinese brands, namely Stone Technology, Anke's Eufy, Cobos and its sub-brands yeedi and Lefant.

It is worth mentioning that Chinese brands no longer rely solely on the "cost-effective" advantage to win. Taking the US market as an example, Magic Mirror data shows that the market share of high-end products of Stone Technology (referring to products priced at more than US $800) has reached 57%, far exceeding iRobot.

Stone Technology was established in 2014, launched its first product in 2016, and expanded to overseas markets in 2017. Chang Jing, founder of Stone Technology, has said in public that the company has been committed to becoming a global brand from the beginning. He stressed: "domestic and overseas are not separate markets, our positioning is the global brand." Stone Technology, which is "born global", takes overseas markets as a new growth point under the circumstances of intensified competition in the domestic market and limited growth space, and about half of its operating income comes from overseas markets. In 2023, Stone Technology achieved operating income of 8.654 billion yuan, up 30.55 percent year-on-year, and net profit of 2.051 billion yuan, up 73.32 percent year-on-year.

With the former giant iRobot turning from profit to loss in 2023, Chinese brand Stone Technology is becoming a high-tech "foreign brand" in the minds of American consumers ".

Enter the opponent's comfort zone

In 2017, Stone Technology embarked on the road to sea in the second year of its establishment. At that time, the overseas market was still iRobot's world. By the end of 2017, iRobot had shipped 20 million units worldwide, and its leading position in the global market has become more and more stable.

The first task of Stone Technology is to conduct market research. Unlike many brands that choose to rely on third-party data companies for consumer research, Stone Technology chooses to conduct large-scale, face-to-face consumer research. Dolly, head of Stone Technology North America, said that although this research process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the insights and value it obtains far exceed third-party data.

As it prepared to enter the U.S. market, Stone conducted user interviews with nearly 1000 people. The survey results show that 40% of users are not satisfied with the effect of the sweeping robot in cleaning the corner. In response to this pain point, Stone Technology invested in research and development and launched a product specifically for the US market that can significantly improve the performance of corner cleaning.

Even with innovative products, Stone's challenges remain daunting in the face of iRobot's strong market position. In the United States, offline shopping malls tend to leave the best location to iRobot, and online platforms also prioritize iRobot products in search results. This situation stems not only from the channel's protection of local consumer goods, but also from iRobot's high sales volume and close cooperation with the channel.

Dolly said that overseas operating costs are very high. To achieve good results, the key is to balance costs and benefits. Therefore, in order to make a breakthrough in the US market, Stone Technology did not choose large-scale advertising, but used a group of technology "enthusiasts" to promote products.

The sweeping robot is a consumer product with strong intelligent technology attributes. These technology enthusiasts have a wide range of influence in the field of technology consumption. Through them, Stone Technology can reach those consumer groups who pay attention to the forefront of technology fashion and are willing to try new things, and initially form a brand impression of "technology sense.

along this line of thinking, stone technology also provides products to science and technology media for evaluation, and gradually obtains the recognition of professional media and more products are exposed. The evaluation articles produced by the media also provided brand endorsement for Stone Technology, bringing the first batch of trial users.

Reaching consumers is only the first step. In order for Chinese brands to truly win the hearts of overseas consumers, in addition to the high quality of the product itself, they also need to establish a deep emotional connection and trust with users. Dolly believes that building user trust needs to start from the details. Whether it is a minor function update of the product or a problem repair, Stone Technology will push messages to users in a timely manner. This approach allows users to feel the care of the brand, so as to cultivate a sense of trust in the brand.

Practice has proved that these users not only spontaneously recommend Stone Technology products to relatives and friends, but also share their own experience on social media. They became the "folk" spokesmen of stone technology. Although the process of accumulating core users is relatively slow in the early stages, their recommend are more influential and persuasive. Through such word-of-mouth communication, Stone Technology has gradually formed the second batch of core user layers.

Open the market

When a home appliance brand goes out to sea, the usual strategy is to first put a batch of products in the overseas market to "try the water", and if the sales of the first batch of products meet expectations, then continue to ship overseas. Because there are many deterministic factors in overseas markets, such as high shipping tariff costs and exchange rate fluctuations. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it sometimes takes one or two months or even longer to collect information and schedule products, which may cause products to miss the golden sales period.

In contrast, Stone Technology has adopted a more "radical" strategy. They directly prepare the first batch of goods for overseas markets to ensure that they can catch the first wave of market heat.

Stone Technology's entry into the U.S. market coincides with a critical period in which consumer shopping habits are shifting from offline to online. In 2018, Stone Technology's products were launched on the Amazon US station, which became the key to breaking through the US market.

Dolly said that the data reports provided by Amazon are very rich. Combining the data of Amazon search advertisement and active display advertisement can help stone technology adjust its actions, attract target consumer groups and promote transformation. For example, after analyzing Amazon data, Stone Technology found that its user portraits were significantly biased towards men, especially young and middle-aged married men. Therefore, when Amazon places in-site advertisements, Stone Technology will display a warm home environment and use pictures with a sense of science and technology to highlight the technological characteristics of the products, so as to attract male consumers and promote purchases.

In 2019, Stone Technology's sales in Amazon's US station increased eightfold to $40 million, successfully firing the first shot in the US market.

Since then, Stone Technology has continued to iterate on its products. Through research on pet families who have not purchased sweeping robots, Stone Technology found that they have a demand for intelligent cleaners, but they are worried that the robots will frighten the pets, knock down their water or drag their feces. In response to these pain points, Stone Technology has focused on the development of obstacle avoidance functions, and increased the recognition function of pet feces, and introduced products that pet owners can use with confidence.

At the same time, the advantages of Chinese brands in technology iteration are gradually emerging. iRobot used to use visual navigation patent barriers to restrict the development of Chinese manufacturers, but Cobos and Stone Technology successfully developed products that use lidar navigation (LDS) combined with high-precision real-time positioning algorithm (SLAM), bypassing iRobot's patent barriers and achieving better performance.

Stone Technology's sweeping robot continues to enhance its "sense of technology". The new product can quickly build and memorize home maps, reasonably plan the cleaning path, and consumers can specify the cleaning area according to their needs. The improvement of these technologies surpassed the experience brought by mainstream manufacturers in foreign markets at that time, and made many foreign consumers shine.

An industry insider analyzed that China's sweeping robot companies are going to sea, which is a typical case of technical products going to sea. Hardware design and software algorithms are crucial for sweeping robots, which is the advantage of Chinese brands. Through the iterative upgrading of technology, the products of Chinese brands have formed a dimension reduction blow to foreign brands in the global market.

Through several products accumulated market heat, stone technology quickly became popular overseas. Stone intelligent sweeping robot T6 series sales exceeded 100000 units. In 2019, Stone Technology's revenue in overseas markets increased by 1800 YoY.

With the improvement of sales performance, many channels in North America took the initiative to contact with stone technology and invited brands to enter. Dolly said that Stone Technology's products will enter more than 100 stores of Target, an offline retail chain channel in the United States, for the first time in 2023. In 2024, the number of stone technology stores has increased to more than 1400. In addition, Stone Technology has also entered offline channels such as BestBuy, Walmart and Sam'sClub. These channels have a stable member consumer groups, further promoting the stone technology product sales and brand influence.

Surpassing of high-end machines

In addition to the continuous improvement of product performance, Stone Technology has established overseas subsidiaries in major overseas markets such as the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and South Korea while sales have increased.In order to provide better after-sales service.

In the United States, Stone Technology has built an independent after-sales service system. Through cooperation with professional after-sales service companies, Stone Technology will recruit maintenance engineers locally in North America and regularly conduct training and assessment for "Stone Engineers. Engineers who fail the assessment will be suspended from service. For the return and exchange needs of consumers, Stone Technology will provide door-to-door pick-up service and send the products to the offline repair station in the United States for repair.

In the past two years, with the rapid improvement of the performance of sweeping robots and the upgrade of intelligent experience, considering the particularity of sweeping robot products (such as longer replacement cycles and higher stand-alone prices), Stone Technology has begun to provide American consumers with trade-in services. Stone Technology recycles users' old machines and provides cash back to promote sales of new products. These after-sales services reduce the cost of choice for consumers to purchase high-end machines.

magic mirror data show that in 2023, the market share of high-end products of stone technology has reached 57% in the US market, far exceeding iRobot's 26%.

Stone Technology believes that there is still much room for development in overseas markets. They will continue to promote sweeping robot products to let more consumers around the world understand and try this smart home product. At the same time, they will continue to improve product performance and intelligent experience to meet the needs of different consumers. Stone Technology believes that with the continuous improvement of consumers' awareness of sweeping robots and the continuous maturity of the market, sweeping robots will become an indispensable smart home device for more and more families.

At present, the biggest problem hindering the development of sweeping robots is the lack of market awareness. Many consumers do not know enough about sweeping robots, and some consumers who have used sweeping robots have left a bad impression on the products. However, after ten years of development, the performance of sweeping robot products has been very mature.

But it's not easy for a brand to change consumers' household cleaning habits and methods. What Stone Technology has to do is to let more consumers around the world understand and try sweeping robots.