The Story of Hard Floor Washers

Tens of billions of dollars have poured into cleaning appliances in recent years, and the most important trigger is the hot sales of Tineco hard floor washers.

Tineco is a sub-brand of Ecovacs Group, a brand focusing on smart home appliances. Ecovacs’ robot vacuum at the time is very successful. The Tineco brand started with vacuum cleaners. I remember that my friends from Tineco invited me for tea in 2019. They were also very troubled and asked me how Tineco could break the situation. I said that your vacuum cleaners now sell for more than 2,000 yuan, which is about the same as Dyson. In this case, everyone will definitely buy Dyson.

But in 2020, Tineco broke through with its hard floor washer, achieving sales of hundreds of millions in just one year, and quickly reaching sales of billions in the next two years. The share price of Ecovacs Group rose from dozens of yuan to a high of more than 200 yuan in more than a year.

The success of Tineco stimulated everyone and ushered in an era of rapid growth of cleaning appliances. At that time, everyone told me, "Denny, cleaning appliances are a strategic opportunity for us, and we must seize this opportunity at all costs."

hard floor washer was originally a hit product of the American giant Bissell. It sold hundreds of thousands of units at the beginning of 2018-2019, with sales of 100 million U.S. dollars, which also allowed Bissell to enter the 1 billion U.S. dollar club. This product was Bissell at the time ll was built by the Chinese team. At that time, it was mainly sold overseas and the sales price was 4-500 US dollars. I wrote about this product in 2019. I also said at the time that it was a pity that this product was not sold in China. But I did not expect that in 20 years this product would become a phenomenal product.

In this video, we will review some of the domestic hard floor washer wars in 20-23. I will list the players in the domestic hard floor washer market in previous years, and you will know how terrifying this war is:

--Leader: Tineco (Ecovacs)

--Foreign giants: Bissell, shark, Dyson, Philips, Kärcher

--Xiaomi background: Xiaomi, Dreame, SWDK, Shunzao, Roidmi, Viomi, Deerma

--Traditional cleaning appliance OEMs: Mido (Aipu), Wanmol (Pufa), Kingclean (Sirius)

--Traditional home appliance giants: Midea, Haier, Supor, Joyoung, Gree

--robot vacuum giants: Roborock, Narwal, Silver Star (within)

--Emerging brands: Bobote, Uwant, Dishui, Mibo (under Fotile), Zhuiguang (mobile phone industry), Narwal, Anker's Eufy

The number of giants involved is unprecedented, with some investing billions, and some starting at a few hundred million. The total investment in R&D and marketing of hard floor washers in the past few years is tens of billions. It is not an exaggeration.

The above-mentioned ones are all brand participants, and there are countless OEMs that develop hard floor washer molds. There are vacuum cleaner factories in Suzhou, robot vacuum factories in Shenzhen (such as Picea, LD Robot, etc.), and various other industries who want to get a share of the pie.

When Tineco became popular in 2020, everyone was looking for a suitable foundry. However, this product belonged to a very niche category at the time. Only some people from Bissell and Tineco had actually done this hard floor washer, and other companies did not have suitable talents. The entire industry flocked to these two companies to find talents. At that time, as long as there were engineers who had done hard floor washer, the salary would be directly increased several times.

At that time, the design company designed the structure and ID of the vacuum cleaner for RMB 100,000, but the hard floor washer cost RMB 500,000 to RMB 800,000 for a set. Some people even sold hard floor washer drawings in the early days, claiming that they cost RMB 5 million for a set. At that time, Bissell's team was in Shenzhen, and Tineco's team was in Suzhou, so most of the companies in Guangdong were designed according to Bissell's style, and the companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were designed according to Tineco's style.

In 20 years, the only brands on the market were Tineco and Bissell. Tineco was far ahead and Bissell was once the second in the industry. At that time, Bissell's executives came to Shanghai in person and invested a lot of money to prepare to seize the market. At one time, they were even preparing to raise funds to fight this tough battle.

Bissell's style is more American-style, with a strong muscle feel. The most important thing is that the roller brush is designed to adapt to carpets and floors. It does not stick to the floor and has no self-driving force when used. At the same time, because it is far away from the ground, its ability to remove stubborn stains is relatively weak, so it is not suitable for the Chinese market. The reason why Bissell ranked second in the industry at that time was that other brands had not yet launched their products on the market, and they briefly occupied a favorable position during the vacuum period of the product. However, Bissell's iteration in the Chinese market was relatively slow, and its market share was almost lost after other brands were launched.

In 2020-21, as long as there is a hard floor washer, you can directly OEM for the brand and make a lot of money. At that time, Shangsimai in Dongguan happened to have hard floor washer products, and basically everyone in the industry approached him. It is said that he made 100 million in those two years.

At that time, SWDK, another company in Xiaomi's ecological chain, also developed a hard floor washer product very early, but strangely there was no noise. Many people didn't even know that they also made a hard floor washer. They got up early and rushed to the evening market.

Tineco hard floor washer was once in short supply, and sometimes you even needed to make an appointment on JD.com and wait for 1-2 months. At that time, being a Tineco dealer could make a lot of money. So all the brands were rushing to enter the market.

In 2021, Dreame was the fastest and released the H11 hard floor washer. After that, it launched a new product every 2-3 months and continuously updated the product. At that time, Dreame had just raised 3.6 billion and had a lot of funds in hand. And they keenly found the opportunity on Douyin and poured all their resources into Douyin. In just a few months, they became the number one hard floor washer on Douyin and the second in the entire industry. In the past few years, hard floor washer was the fastest. The washer market is basically a competition between Tineco and Dreame. In this video, I explain in detail how Dreame surpassed Tineco on the Douyin channel.

By 2022, basically all the brands’ own products had been released, and the era of melee began.

At the beginning of 2022, a brand called Chasing Light announced a hard floor with double roller brushes. The washer has an aluminum alloy casing, double roller brushes, and is manufactured by Luxshare Precision. It is said that Chasing Light has a background in the mobile phone industry and has raised a lot of money. Several friends in the industry and I were watching the live broadcast of the online conference. They were all very worried. A very powerful competitor had arrived. However, The product of Chasing Light is a typical negative example. When the basic functions of the product are immature, the better the publicity, the faster it will die. Due to the quality problems of the product itself, there were a large number of returns of the product of Chasing Light as soon as it was launched. It is said that the return rate is close to 90%. After it was released, it was almost dead.

Midea Cleaning Appliances Division had just acquired the Eureka brand at that time, so it decided to put this brand into the Chinese market, focusing on high-end products. The brand name was Eureka. At that time, it directly hired Yi Yang Qianxi as a spokesperson. At that time, Midea and Eureka brands were running in parallel.

At that time, there were many companies looking for spokespersons in the industry. Roborock found Xiao Zhan as its spokesperson, and Dreame also found Su Bingtian as its spokesperson. In the early stage, the progress of high-end products was not smooth. It was not until the emergence of GX5, which mainly focused on the 1500 price range, that it began to gain a foothold in hard floor washers.

The first model released by Roborock at that time was a hard floor washer with double roller brushes. The double roller brushes were the breaking point for many companies against the Tineco hard floor washer. To be honest, Roborock's hard floor washer was pretty good, but there was one point that many people complained about. In order to achieve more flexible turning, the machine could not stand upright, so a bracket was added under the body. We complained about this as a crutch at the time. At that time, Roborock's robot vacuum was very popular, and hard floor washers were popular. Washers are not particularly valued. This year Roborock has invested a lot of resources in hard floor washers. The A30 wireless steam hard floor washer 618 is said to be selling very well this time.

After Narwal released the J1 robot vacuum, the product direction of the entire company was a bit confusing, and many product directions were tried in the interim. The first hard floor washer released had merits in its shape and workmanship, but it was released too late, and sales were average under the attack of giants that year. The company in the middle also experienced many difficulties. In these years, Narwal began to focus on the product direction. Both the robot vacuum and the hard floor washer had many merits, and began to move towards the road of positive feedback.

Haier also attached great importance to hard floor washers at that time, and directly upgraded small and micro enterprises to business divisions. In order to have better product research and development capabilities, Haier spent 1 billion to invest in the Picea robot in Shenzhen. At that time, Haier's first dual-roller hard floor washer was OEMed by Picea. Picea was OEM for hard floor washers at that time. Washer attached great importance to it and set up an office in Suzhou, poaching many people. Haier has always been very good in the Douyin channel, and it should be the first company to conduct store broadcasts and self-broadcasts on Douyin. Relying on the stable sales of the Douyin channel, Haier's market share was once in the top three or four.

Xiaomi has always attached great importance to cleaning appliances. At that time, some friends in the industry were worried that if Xiaomi entered the market with cost-effectiveness, it would be difficult for others to do so. However, at that time, Xiaomi was at the point of becoming a high-end brand, so they did not choose to enter the market with cost-effectiveness for the hard floor washer. At that time, Xiaomi made the most complex hard floor washer in the entire industry, with a hot water base station and high-temperature hot water hard floor washer, the price is not cheap, more than 3,000 yuan. Because the product is too complicated and the time is too short, there are many minor problems after this product is launched. The sales volume is also relatively average. We reviewed it with a few friends, and at that time the price of Tineco hard floor washer is more than 3,000 yuan. If Xiaomi had released a machine that cost 2,000 yuan and had similar configurations to Tineco, selling 1 million units in the first year would not be a big problem. In this way, it would be difficult for other companies to compete in the 2,000 price range. After the time has passed, it will be difficult to enter later.

Shunzao was also a popular player in the Xiaomi ecological chain at that time. The success of Roborock and Dreame made many people full of expectations for Shunzao's development. Xiaomi's first high-temperature hard floor washer was manufactured by Shunzao. This product was not particularly successful, but it was the second hard floor washer with tracks and lying flat. Sales were very good, leading the market to adopt the lying flat function as a standard feature.

Kitchenware giant Supor entered the cleaning appliance market in 2019, and some of its early managers are familiar with me. They also consider the hard floor washer market to be a strategic opportunity. Their investment in resources is relatively weaker than Midea and Haier, but they also invest more. The hard floor washer project has always been quite satisfactory. Some time ago, a friend who has left Supor told me that it is a pity that the hard floor washer is a pity. Washer failed to seize this strategic opportunity. I told him that it was fortunate that you did not follow up, otherwise the loss might not be just a little bit.

Joyoung/Shark. Compared with Midea, Haier, and Supor’s huge investment in cleaning appliances, Joyoung’s investment in domestic cleaning appliances is relatively conservative and there is no aggressive investment in marketing and promotion. The investment in domestic cleaning appliances, including the Shark brand, is also tepid. A basic phenomenon in cleaning appliances in recent years is that investment in money does not necessarily lead to sales, and without investment there will definitely be no sales.

Anker's Eufy Mach. At that time, Anker attached great importance to the project of cleaning appliances and hired many people in Suzhou, but it was not very successful. Yang Meng later also reflected on the project of cleaning appliances. In addition to the Eufy brand for traditional vacuum cleaners, a separate Eufy Mach brand was also established at that time. The first product of the hard floor washer was a wireless steam hard floor washer, I analyzed at the time that this cordless steam vacuum cleaner was difficult to use. Later, Youfei Mach sold a small number and stopped in China. It is said that the Youfei Mach project also lost hundreds of millions.

Deerma. Deerma has always attached great importance to cleaning appliances and has always cooperated with many companies in Suzhou. Deerma's small household appliances are famous for their appearance and cost-effectiveness. My friend told me before that Deerma's prices are difficult for them to reach. When it comes to hard floor In this wave of washer, Deerma's move is relatively straightforward. While cooperating with the foundry in Suzhou to obtain ready-made machines, it simultaneously develops its own products. Deerma's position is also very clear. At a time when the giants are competing for the price range above 2,000, Deerma has always been stuck in the 1,000 price range. At that time, there were no big brands in the 1,000 price range, only some white-label products. Their strength was completely incomparable with Deerma. Deerma should have had good sales at that time.

BoBot. BoBot first sold electric mops with double turntables in China. When other people's electric mops sold for 3-500 yuan, they could sell them for 2,000 yuan, and they could do nearly 200 million in sales a year. In 2019, before the hard floor washer exploded, they were optimistic about hard floor. In the field of washer, I recommended foundries with development capabilities to them. Unfortunately, they were later targeted by giants, which caused the product to be launched more than half a year later. Later, due to other reasons, they were eliminated in this wave of hard floor washer wars.

Mibo. Range hood giant Fotile also saw the opportunity to clean electrical appliances. They took advantage of the fact that roller brushes are not easy to clean, tend to stink and leave water stains on the floor, and launched the hard floor washer without roller cloth. The roller brush parts of this hard floor washer are all plastic parts and silica gel, which can be washed directly in water. When it was first launched, many people came to consult, but this product had a serious problem, that is, it was very heavy and inconvenient to push. It was not until the second generation floor brush was added with a power-assist motor that this problem became slightly better. However, the hard floor washer was updated and iterated too fast, and not a startup like Mibo could follow up. After losing hundreds of millions, FOTILE Group should have basically stopped investing in the hard floor washer.

Hizero/Dripshui. Hizero and Dishui are a company that made hard floor washers very early, but their product form does not have a suction motor, and the garbage is rolled in through the deformation of the sponge roller. The advantage of this roller is that it has very good water absorption, the ground is very dry, and because there is no suction motor, the noise is very low, and the cost will be relatively low. I personally think this is a low-cost hard floor. The washer should be possible. Unfortunately, at that point in 2022, everyone in the industry chose the traditional vacuum motor method. Once the direction of the industry is determined, it is basically impossible to go against the trend. Therefore, sponge roller hard floor washer products are destined to be a branch in the historical process.

Uwant (Uwant). Uwant is a very good company. They pioneered several popular categories in the industry, such as the double-barrel mite remover and the fabric cleaning machine. Their first hard floor model at the time The washer is a double roller brush with automatic hair cutting. There are some innovations in the product, but the first product does have various minor problems. The company Uwant's ability is tenacious. Over the years, under such intense competition in the domestic cleaning appliance market, it can still survive and survive well. Nowadays, the hard floor washer can sell hundreds of thousands of units a year.

Dyson. Before the outbreak of hard floor washers, Dyson has always been the number one in the domestic vacuum cleaner industry. Every year on 618 and Double 11, it is easily ahead of other competitors. But in the era of hard floor washers, Dyson’s ranking in the country is outside the 10th place. Because its R&D team is abroad, Dyson’s products are also mainly developed for foreign markets. For the Chinese market, hard floor washers The outbreak of washer was not caught. During the process, Dyson also tried to release several floor washing products, one was a floor brush that matched the vacuum cleaner, and the other was a hard floor washer. These two products only announced their existence and did not seem to be released in China. The release of these two products was evaluated by industry insiders as plagiarizing the ideas of Suzhou Small Accessories Factory, which completely made Dyson step down from the altar.

Kingclean. Kingclean started building its own brand very early. The brand has always been positioned at the high end and has been very successful in water purifiers and air purifiers. In the wave of hard floor washers, Kingclean has not been absent. It has always adhered to its own product direction and strategy. It spends less on marketing than other companies. Looking at it now, Kingclean is still there, while some other radical brands have disappeared.

Traditional OEM giants. The bosses of traditional OEM giants are already worth tens of billions. For them, whether the business is a few hundred million or a few hundred million is not a big problem. Seeing that Ecovacs Group has been so successful in transforming from OEM to brand, they also hope to become a brand. However, it is very difficult for traditional OEM to transform into a brand. The biggest problem is the mismatch of talents and resources. These OEM bosses should have suffered losses in the hard floor washer wave of brands, and now it is rare to hear people talk about building their own brands.

Looking back at the hard floor washer industry from now on, most brands other than Tineco probably have not made any money. Many of my friends who told me that hard floor washer was a strategic opportunity are no longer in the industry. Only Dreame has truly seized the strategic opportunity of hard floor washer.

No matter what the future holds, these heroes in the industry are worthy of respect.