Do you still remember the feeling of using a sweeping robot for the first time?

Like a child receiving a new toy, many people are curious about every new function of the sweeping robot and can't wait to explore every corner. You may observe its cleaning path, watch it automatically avoid obstacles, and feel the convenience brought by technology.

However, over time, this novelty gradually fades away, and the robot silently completes the cleaning task every day, gradually becoming a part of your daily life. It's not until it stops working one day that you realize that such a product is not only a tool, but also a necessity that improves your quality of life.

In fact, energy has become one of the most precious resources in modern society. The process of pursuing a happy life is actually a process of continuously optimizing energy input. However, daily chores such as housework often become traps that drain energy. According to the "2024 Workplace Mother Survival Survey" conducted by Zhaopin, nearly 80% of working mothers spend more than two hours a day on housework, and the consumption of these time and energy has a profound impact on personal and family life. Therefore, a truly intelligent sweeping robot that can free your hands is crucial for modern families.

According to statistics, the penetration rate of sweeping robots in China is about 6%-10%. However, the concept of sweeping robots has almost been popularized. This is not only due to the rapid product iteration of sweeping robot categories, but also due to the continuous improvement of product power and innovation of major manufacturers to increase market penetration rate.

Judging from the market development of sweeping robots in recent years, it is still the key for sweeping robot brands to achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement through systematic and scale development, increase research and development investment to achieve technological cost reduction, expand the user base, drive continuous growth in consumer demand through product innovation in 2024.

Taking the sweeping robot leader Roborock Technology as an example, it drives the company's development with innovation. From 2019 to 2023, its cumulative research and development investment exceeded 2 billion yuan, and its research and development costs accounted for 4.59%, 5.80%, 7.55%, 7.37%, 7.15% of total revenue, respectively. Obviously, its research and development investment intensity is continuously increasing year by year. This also led Roborock to launch the industry benchmark product at its global conference held earlier this year, the new self-cleaning sweeping and mopping robot product global flagship G20S and the pioneer flagship V20. These new products have been continuously iterated and innovated in terms of cleaning ability, intelligence, navigation and obstacle avoidance, and base station versatility, further enhancing the user's cleaning experience.

As the first enterprise to widely apply LIDAR navigation technology in the field of sweeping robots, Roborock Technology has made breakthroughs in LDS technology, making LDS navigation technology mainstream in the industry. On the latest G20S and V20 products, Roborock Technology once again demonstrated its technical strength, launching the world's first dual-light source solid-state LIDAR navigation and obstacle avoidance technology and the new Star Formation navigation system, significantly improving navigation and obstacle avoidance capabilities. In addition, Roborock Technology has made significant breakthroughs in the research and development of super-power dual-drive modules, integrating dual spiral rubber brushes and four-wheel dual-shock ground wiping technology, further improving the overall performance of sweeping and mopping robots.

Among them, the G20S is the first sweeping robot in China to obtain Matter certification, which means that the product can seamlessly connect to Apple, Amazon, Google and other global mainstream intelligent ecosystems, realize cross-platform, cross-cloud, and cross-protocol interconnection of products, and achieve a wider range of device connections and applications, greatly enhancing user experience.

Southwest Securities predicts that Roborock Technology will focus on recognizing new product revenue in the second quarter of 2024, with both volume and price increasing. The company's new V series and G series products launched in the first quarter of this year began pre-sales. The pre-sales income of the V series and G series products was not included in the Q1 2024 revenue and is expected to be released in Q2 2024.

Research and development capability and product power are positively correlated, and also positively related to market revenue. According to the latest financial report of Roborock Technology, the company achieved revenue of 1.841 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2024, a new high for the same period since its listing. The net profit attributable to mothers reached 399 million yuan, also hitting a historical high. In addition, in 2023, Roborock Technology realized revenue of 8.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.5%, net attributable to shareholders of 2.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 73.3%, and non-net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.5%.

It is understood that currently, Beijing Roborock Technology's products have been distributed in more than 170 countries and regions around the world, with more than 15 million households using Roborock sweeping robots. In the global market, Roborock Technology performs particularly well: it tops the sales charts in the Nordic market, and has the highest market share in Germany; in the Asia-Pacific region, it has the highest sales in the South Korean market and the highest sales revenue in the Turkish market. According to Euromonitor International data, Roborock sweeping robot sales will be ranked first globally in 2023.

Tianfeng Securities believes that "Roborock Technology's products have achieved rapid growth in domestic and international sales revenue with outstanding product performance and technical advantages. Meanwhile, further improvement in product price range and channel layout has promoted the company's operational performance and profitability. Based on the company's quarterly report, we have appropriately raised the revenue growth rate. It is expected that the company's net income attributable to the parent will continue to increase in 2024-2026."