CCTV Beijing, April 17 (Reporter Qi Zhiying) Recently, Roborock (688169. Chang Jing, chairman and general manager of SH) and founder of Jishi Automobile, emptied the content of his personal Douyin and Weibo accounts, which attracted market attention. In December last year, Changjing reduced its holdings in Roborock Technology and cashed out nearly 900 million yuan, but advised investors to be patient.

Regarding the reason why Changjing emptied the content of his Douyin and Weibo accounts, a reporter from CCTV Finance called the official customer service of Jishi Automobile, and the other party said that there was no information in this regard and that the company's operation was in good condition. Guan Ningfei, head of Roborock's public relations team, did not respond.

Since Roborock was listed for one year, the company has successively announced the shareholding reduction plans of some directors, supervisors, senior executives and early investment shareholders. At the same time, Roborock's performance is not optimistic, and there have been two consecutive quarters of revenue growth but no profit increase. On April 16, Changjing said at Roborock's performance briefing that it is actively studying coping strategies, including raising prices and looking for suitable opportunities for cooperation with overseas supply chains.

has cashed out nearly 900 million, but advises investors to be patient

According to public information, as of now, Changjing's Douyin account has 412,000 followers and 12,000 Weibo account fans.

Chang Jing has repeatedly promoted the Polar Stone Automobile brand on his social accounts. In December last year, Changjing cashed out (Rock Technology) of nearly 900 million yuan but advised investors to be patient, and related topics were on the hot search, causing heated discussions, and some netizens thought that Changjing was "not doing business". Since then, Chang Jing's Douyin account has not updated the video.

Roborock announced that from March 2023 to June 2024, Changjing reduced its holdings of Roborock twice, cashing out a total of about 888 million yuan, and the shareholding ratio decreased from 23.15% in February 2021 to 21.03% at the end of 2024. Among them, from March to September 2023, Changjing reduced its holdings of 1,312,400 shares through centralized bidding transactions, with an average price of 291.31-379.28 yuan per share, cashing out about 392 million yuan, and the second reduction occurred on June 14, 2024, Changjing transferred about 1,315,800 shares to 11 institutions through inquiry transfer, with an average price of 376.88 yuan per share, and cashed out about 496 million yuan.

It is worth noting that after the two reductions, Roborock issued an announcement on Changjing's voluntary non-reduction. According to the announcement, during a specific period of time (September 15, 2023 to December 14, 2023, June 19, 2024 to December 18, 2024), Changjing will not reduce its holdings of the company's shares through centralized bidding transactions, block transactions, etc.

In November last year, Changjing posted a number of videos on social platforms to participate in the "desert off-road" car event and promote the Polar Stone Automobile brand he founded, which attracted the dissatisfaction of some Roborock investors, who believed that Changjing was "not doing his job".

On November 11 of the same year, some netizens said in their comment area: "The recent sharp drop in the stock price of Roborock has affected the company's image, and I hope that Chang can pay attention to it, strengthen the company's market value management expectations and enhance investor confidence." ”

"Now is a period of strategic transformation, but also a painful period, which is bound to bring about some changes in the company, which are for the long-term development in the future. If the company does not develop in order to stabilize the stock price, the company may also go downhill after a while. At that time, Chang Jing released a video response, hoping that investors who hold Roborock shares can be patient.

Chang Jing was also labeled as a "double standard" by the outside world, and when the stock price of Roborock fell, he emphasized "be patient", but he personally reduced his holdings of Roborock to cash out a large amount of money.

Some directors, supervisors, senior executives and shareholders have reduced their holdings many times

Roborock landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in February 2020, when its IPO issue price was 271.12 yuan per share, and with the halo of "the first issue price" at that time, it rose 83.65% to close at 497.9 yuan per share on the first day of listing, which was called "crazy stone" by the outside world. Ten months later, Roborock's share price rose above the 1,000-yuan mark, becoming the first 1,000-yuan stock on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

In February 2021, with the arrival of the first anniversary of its listing, Roborock ushered in the lifting of 28.5887 million shares for the first time, accounting for 42.87% of the company's total share capital. On the day of the lifting of the ban, Roborock announced that the company's four directors, supervisors and six shareholders planned to reduce their holdings by a total of no more than 7,397,500 shares, all due to "their own capital needs". Subsequently, Roborock issued announcements on the shareholding reduction plan of directors, supervisors, senior executives or shareholders on June 18, 2021, October 26, 2021, February 25, 2022, May 27, 2022, January 16, 2023, February 22, 2023, and June 15, 2024, respectively.

According to incomplete statistics from the financial reporter of CCTV, in addition to Changjing, after the listing of Roborock, a total of 9 directors, supervisors and senior executives have initiated a shareholding reduction plan. There are 4 people who actually reduced their holdings, namely Wan Yunpeng, Zhang Zhichun, Wu Zhen, and Mao Guohua, among which Mao Guohua is the co-founder of Rock Technology. At present, none of the four people are among the directors, supervisors and senior executives of Roborock.

In addition to directors, supervisors and senior executives, Tianjin Stone Age Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Stone Age"), which was funded and established by Roborock executives, also reduced its holdings in Roborock several times from 2021 to 2022, with the reduction ratios of 2.23%, 0.17% and 1.43% respectively.

In addition, a number of major shareholders of early-stage investment companies have also initiated several reductions in Roborock to varying degrees. Roborock's early major shareholders, Shunwei Ventures III (Hong Kong) Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Shunwei"), Tianjin Jinmi Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjin Jinmi"), Ding Di, Banyan Consulting Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Gao Rong"), and QM27 Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Qiming"), have reduced their holdings several times from 2021 to 2024. The maximum price of the reduction was 1344.01 yuan per share.

As of February 23, 2021, Shunwei, Tianjin Jinmi, Ding Di, Qiming, and Gao Rong held 9.64%, 8.89%, 5.93%, 4.39%, and 5.05% of Roborock, respectively. As of the end of 2024, Tianjin Jinmi and Ding Di hold 2.93% and 4.77% of the shares respectively, and the other three shareholders are no longer among the top ten shareholders of Roborock.

On April 17, 2025, Roborock rose slightly by 0.1%, with a share price of 183.79 yuan per share, with a total market value of 33.95 billion yuan.

Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, said that Roborock's listing coincided with the special period of working from home, and the market demand for home robots drove the concept valuation higher. As the competition matures, the popularity of relative differentiation has declined, and the company's valuation has also adjusted to a relatively reasonable range.

Roborock's profitability declined

Behind the reduction of directors, supervisors and senior executives, the decline in stock prices, and the emptiness of the chairman's social accounts, Roborock's profitability is also not optimistic. According to the company's recently released performance financial report, the company achieved revenue of 11.945 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year increase of 38.03%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.977 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.64%, showing a situation of increasing revenue but not increasing profits.

From the perspective of a single quarter, Roborock's net profit attributable to the parent company has declined year-on-year for two consecutive quarters, with a year-on-year decline of 43.4% and 26.99% in the third and fourth quarters of 2024, respectively.

The financial report also revealed the cost structure of Roborock. In 2024, the company's operating costs surged by 49.38% and selling expenses increased by 73.23%.

Not only that, Roborock's gross profit margin also declined. Last year, the company's gross profit margin was 50.14%, a year-on-year decrease of 5 percentage points; The net profit margin was 16.55%, a year-on-year decrease of 7.16 percentage points. Among them, the gross profit margin of Roborock in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 44.86%, down 11.79 percentage points year-on-year, and the net profit margin was 10.21%, down 13.09 percentage points year-on-year.

In terms of categories, the gross profit margin of Roborock Smart Hardware will decline by 3.75 percentage points year-on-year in 2024. Among them, the gross profit margin of sweepers and other smart electrical appliances decreased by 2.87 and 9.1 percentage points year-on-year respectively. In terms of regions, the gross profit margin of the company's domestic and foreign sales fell by 1.56 and 6.74 percentage points year-on-year respectively last year.

Caixin Securities Research Report believes that after the intensification of global market competition, Roborock has mainly adopted the method of discounting old products to make up for the layout of low-end products in order to expand its product structure and price band, which has had a downward impact on gross profit margin.

According to the analysis of Tianfeng Securities' research report, the gross profit margin of the main products declined, mainly due to the intensification of market competition, and Roborock further expanded the product price segment to respond to the differentiated needs of consumers; Overseas gross profit margin decreased significantly year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in tariff costs.

Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economic observer, believes that in recent years, more and more sweeping robots have entered the brand, and with the increasingly fierce market competition, the inflated price component has been further reduced, and the gross profit margin of the industry is expected to be further reduced in 2025.

Regarding how to deal with the impact of tariff policies, Changjing said at Roborock's performance briefing on April 16 that the company is actively studying coping strategies, including raising prices and finding suitable opportunities for cooperation with overseas supply chains.

Chang Jing said that in the future, Roborock will seize the opportunity of domestic policies to expand domestic sales; At the same time, we will continue to expand in Europe, Asia-Pacific and other markets to seek new business growth points. In addition, the company will continue to implement the current product strategy and market strategy, enhance brand influence and recognition by enriching the price matrix, and enhance the company's competitiveness and premium ability.