Interview with Cobos Qian Cheng: Looking back on the past and looking forward to the future on the 20th anniversary

When Ecovacs first established its brand in China, the traditional vacuum cleaner market at that time was still a wilderness that needed to be reclaimed, because vacuum cleaners at that time were still a symbol of high quality of life for most Chinese families. Therefore, as the market at that time Forerunners, the best path for Ecovacs should be to build itself into a market-leading brand.

Under this premise, Cobos can be said to have no motivation to transform, at least the need for transformation is far from so urgent, but it still does so. For this, Cobos’s explanation is, “We are going to express our brand and what we really want to do.”

Regarding this answer, Leifeng.com has a question: In today's technology industry, there seems to be a trend. The more rare the success, the more simple and pure the original intention and causes will be described, and even a little willful, such as putting on ideals. The cloak of doctrine, such as the feelings involved in the spirit of craftsmanship... and so on. Now that Cobos has described his own transformation measures in the same understatement, we can’t help but wonder, is Cobos also unavoidably clichéd?

In this regard, Qian Cheng said that when the company made this decision, it was indeed based on some thinking and analysis of the future and technological development, but what really promoted the implementation of the transformation was Ecovacs' persistence in its heart and dreams. Qian Cheng also pointed out that behind many successes, in addition to the test of foresight, insight and execution, pure or even naive ideas are often an element, because compared with the previous conditions, these come from the deepest heart. It is obviously easier to support the belief with the desire and ideas, and every change and transformation of Cobos in the past 20 years has this part of the factor in it.

We are satisfied with this answer. Because it is not difficult to imagine that when Cobos decided to transform from the traditional vacuum cleaner market to sweeping robots, the huge resistance it faced was even difficult to use the word "labor pains" to summarize-after almost withdrawing other products, The sales performance of Cobos has suffered a sharp decline. Although this is an expected result, it is still difficult for companies to undertake. On the other hand, as an emerging market, sweeping robots can provide too much feedback to Cobos. Slow too little. In retrospect, this was probably the most unbearable phase of the business.

However, the reality proved that Cobos's choice was correct.

As a technology company like many in China, Ecovacs has also experienced the development route from trade, then to factories, then to technology, and finally launched its own brand. In the view of Cobos, this is actually the development path of Chinese manufacturing determined by a large era framework, but it also points out that if there is no continuous technological investment and pursuit, Cobos will not have the development from the beginning The opportunity of the trade to turn to today's brand-this seems to explain why Cobos has achieved such success today.

In fact, if you have enough observation, it is not difficult to find that in fact, there has never been a brand that has truly led the development of the industry in the field of traditional vacuum cleaners. It was detonated by the brand headed by Cobos, which is a sweeping robot. Subsequently, more and more companies began to pay attention to how to achieve consumption upgrades in the field of household cleaning, and at this time Cobos has become the most advanced force in this wave.

Talking here, the author thought of another case that many people questioned as a wrong strategy at the beginning, that is JD.com’s self-built logistics. This business, which has caused JD.com to lose money for years, was once thought to drag JD.com into a quagmire one day. But after the advent of the real e-commerce era, people suddenly realized that self-built logistics has become one of JD.com’s biggest reliance—like JD.com, Cobos did not wait for the wind to come, but chose to become part of the vent.

Cobos and its 20th year - how the sweeping robot walks the last mile

When mentioning the word 20th anniversary, Qian Cheng couldn't hide his smile, but he also said that this is not a point that should be paid too much attention to.

This is also the same as the mentality of many parents. The 20th birthday is certainly worth celebrating, but more important than the celebration itself is how to plan the next step and the next step of development, so that the "children" at the age of 30 or even 40 years old, You can still be as successful as you are today.

In the interview, Qian Cheng disclosed two data to Leifeng.com: In the European market, the sweeping robot is the second largest in the field of small household appliances. In the US and Chinese markets, the growth of sweeping robots is the fastest.

It seems that the entire industry is developing according to Cobos’s predictions—the whole world is facing consumption upgrades in the field of household cleaning. The starting point of the upgrades may be different, but the sweeping robot is the “confluence” of this upgrade. .

But the problem lying in front of Cobos is that although Cobos has already occupied the leading market position in China, it still faces the challenge of the traditional vacuum cleaner market that is also growing. In this regard, Leifeng.com also puts forward its own Question: In the future, how will Ecovacs further expand its market share?

Qian Cheng first said that compared with the market size and share, what Cobos cares most about is how to make this market bigger and bigger, and welcomes more and more companies to join this industry—usually, an enterprise There are no more than two reasons for being able to have such a tolerant attitude towards competitors. One is that it has a higher corporate perspective and level, and the other is that it often has absolute technical strength and sufficient research and judgment on the market. And it seems that Cobos has both.

However, Cobos also took out its own specific measures and shared them with Leifeng.com.The first plan is to continue to jointly promote the category of sweeping robots through partners, so that more consumers can recognize this product or even a lifestyle choice.It is worth mentioning that, just past March 27, Ecovacs just joined forces with Tmall to hold the Ecovacs "Super Brand Day". This is a Double Eleven that only belongs to Ecovacs. Behind the cooperation is the market leading position of Cobos and its good cooperative relationship with Tmall and other channels.

The second solution is to continuously optimize the intelligent space of the sweeping robot.Qian Cheng said frankly that at this stage, due to size and technical factors, it is difficult for the sweeping robot to cover every corner of the home. Then these remaining places that cannot be covered are still the "world" of traditional vacuum cleaners. This is what the sweeping robot wants to achieve. More market share must be the direction of efforts.

Qian Cheng said that the most important energy at this stage is to solve the last mile problem in the field of "household cleaning", and the weapon it brings out is the positioning and identification of the indoor environment.

Sweeping robot DJ35, endorsed by Zhong Hanliang

In this area, Ecovacs has found Qualcomm to cooperate. With the help of the powerful computing power of Qualcomm chips and the indoor navigation technology with exclusive advantages of Ecovacs, it can greatly improve the processing requirements of the sweeping robot for environmental information. The DJ35 robot that has been launched so far is the result of the cooperation between Ecovacs and Qualcomm. What Ecovacs hopes is that when consumers take this robot home, it will have a different experience from the previous products of Ecovacs.

Facing the next decade, Ecovacs has its own magic weapon, which is the leading indoor environment positioning and identification technology. Ecovacs is full of confidence in this, because this technology has a wide range of applications, as long as it is an indoor scene The following robot products can be truly intelligent by virtue of this technology.

However, in addition to the leading indoor environment positioning and recognition technology, the addition of artificial intelligence is also continuously promoting the development of the sweeping robot industry to go through the last mile. It will enable the robot to strengthen its judgment on things and the environment through continuous learning. So as to really change the core focus of the product from functions such as sweeping the floor to a real intelligent robot.

How does Cobos move toward its 30th birthday? ——Complete product line from sweeping robot to household robot

In addition to the cooperation with Qualcomm, Qian Cheng also mentioned the cooperation with Huawei HiLink, introducing the development direction that the sweeping robot can help collect the signal strength of Huawei routers, and provide timely feedback to help companies improve their products. He also said that in the future, through hardware such as cameras, more information and parameters can be collected to help more companies lower the barriers to communication with consumers.

It also raised concerns about our privacy, especially after learning that the product is equipped with a camera. Qian Cheng said that first of all, the purpose of using the terminal to collect data is to help consumers solve pain points, improve the experience, and also help manufacturers understand whether they can better serve consumers; as for the camera on the device, it will only capture features. Click to scan, and you will not see any information that should not be in your home. But Qian Cheng also said that currently, no manufacturer can say that the user privacy issue is absolutely perfect. The only thing that can be discussed is how to protect the user's data privacy and realize that the data is only used for customers and not for other purposes. Qian Cheng said that he is willing to join the discussion at this level and make practical efforts for user privacy and data security.

When talking about the future, Qian Cheng said that the most important thing at this stage is to do a good job of existing products and tap more value, such as making robots a more valuable terminal and promoting more consumers to recognize such products. product.

At present, in addition to sweeping robots, Cobos also has air-purifying robots and window-cleaning robots. During the interview, Qian Cheng also introduced to Leifeng.com, such as the air-purifying robot, which is a mobile air purifier. Its advantage is that it solves the problem that one air purifier is not enough for the whole family, and it is wasteful to buy too much, and it greatly enriches the scenes that did not exist at all. For example, in a family with children, the air purifier can be set to The child automatically moves to another room after falling asleep, instead of relying on manpower to carry it and so on.

Leifeng.com asked whether Cobos will enter the service field in the future, and the answer was that Cobos may not necessarily provide services, but if it does, it will definitely not stop at the service itself. Qian Cheng said that he is more concerned about how to break through the boundaries of hardware, so that the service can truly sink, rather than simply renting out a piece of equipment.

Qian Cheng also said that future robots will continue to change from the current tools to housekeepers and even companions, such as adding security and nursing functions. When Leifeng.com wants to ask more detailed questions, Qian Cheng said that it is not convenient at present reveal more.

This may mean that Cobos has prepared enough surprises and will show them to you at a suitable time.