The single-appliance market for household appliances is gradually becoming saturated. In the face of increasingly fierce market competition, companies are seeking to break the road. Under the catalysis of smart IoT technology, smart homes have become recognized as the breaking direction. Color TVs, refrigerators, speakers, and service robots have become one after another. Business fights for the focus of the wisdom family entrance.
On May 15, the domestic sweeping robot company Cobos Robot Co., Ltd. (603486.SH) issued a public offering of initial public offerings and held an IPO online investor exchange meeting.
The prospectus shows that Cobos intends to issue no more than 40.1 million shares in this issue at a price of 20.02 yuan per share. It is expected that the total amount of funds raised will be 802 million yuan. After deducting the issuance cost, the net proceeds raised will be approximately 751 million yuan. With regard to the use of raised funds, investments will be made in accordance with the order of priority for the annual production of 4 million home service robot projects, robot internet ecosystem projects and international marketing programs.
Implement the three major strategies of robotization, internetization and internationalization
The development plan for the next three years in the prospectus mentioned that Cobos plans to build a robotic industrial park with an annual output of 4 million home service robots and expand the production scale of home service robots to meet the rapidly growing market demand.
'Current household service robot products have strong consumer demand. This will help expand production capacity to meet the needs of market demand upgrading. 'The need for an annual output of 4 million home service robot projects, Vice Chairman of Cobos, International Business David ChengQian, the head of the department, explained that this move will help Cobos to increase the production capacity of mid- to high-end products, maintain its market share leadership, increase the degree of automation of production, and further increase production efficiency.
Regarding international marketing projects, Cobos said that it will upgrade existing overseas marketing and service networks by expanding existing overseas operating teams, setting up brand concept stores, building marketing network information platform and international official website platform, and increasing international Market development efforts.
China National Grid understands that while Cobos serves robots, small household appliances such as cleanliness are on the domestic market, and the online market holds a leading edge, its international market share and export scale are still facing “there's days out there”. According to information center information, Koworth's export of clean household appliances ranked sixth in 2015, ranking fourth in 2016. At present, its overseas market influence still needs to be strengthened.
David ChengQian stated that the continuous promotion of the internationalization strategy, the expansion of overseas sales teams, and the construction of online and offline channel information platforms will help Cobos to increase its overseas market share, brand awareness, and market influence.
On the robotic Internet ecosystem, Coworth explained that the project includes six development directions including APP development, big data center construction, indoor 3D environment recognition, intelligent voice, face recognition, and machine learning.
'As an entry point for smart homes, service robots are expected to serve as a link between users and other household appliances.' David ChengQian said that through the implementation of this project, it will help Coworth establish a 'strong connection' between user and home service robot products. The collection and storage of massive operational data, and the intelligentization of home service robots in terms of environmental recognition, human-computer interaction, and deep learning, etc. contribute to Coworth's continuous industrial development The leading position of technology, continuously improve the degree of product intelligence, meet consumer demand pain points.
Appliance companies have laid out a smart interconnected ecosystem
Regarding the development path of the industry, the Coworthian prospectus clearly states: To adapt to the new trend of 'home service robots becoming the entrance to the mobile Internet', home service robot companies are only committed to producing high-quality robot hardware itself. It will not be enough to support the sustainable development of the enterprise. It will be based on home service robot products, and will be linked to mobile internet applications (APP). Through continuous research and development in the field of informatization automation technology, the transition to Internet eco-enterprises will become a home service robot. The only way for business development.
In fact, this is the transformation path for most home appliance companies.
'With the rapid growth of the market capacity of home service robots, Philips, Haier, Midea, Panasonic and other large domestic and foreign home appliance brands have also entered the field of sweeping robots for strategic considerations such as improving brand coverage of product categories.' Chairman Qian Dongqi said.
However, the grand blueprint for the transformation and development of home appliance companies is not limited to the use of sweeping robots or service robots to expand the category. During the AWE in March this year, Haier, Midea and other mainstream appliance companies have released the latest smart interconnect strategy.
On March 6th, Haier announced a strategic partnership with SoftBank Robots, and proposed the upgrade of service robots from a single function to a single scene. The two sides teamed up with SoftBank’s humanoid robot 'Pepper' to take the lead in smart stores and smart homes. The field promoted the development of a smart, connected ecosystem. The “New Generation of Man-Machine” conference held on March 7th showcased smart interconnected scenarios such as smart manufacturing, smart homes, smart supply chain, smart new retail, smart logistics, and rehabilitation and medical care. Applications.
For the future development plan, Coworth said that while continuing to strengthen the focus of the home service robot business, it insists on developing cutting-edge business areas such as commercial service robots, while continuing to maintain the cost leadership of clean small home appliances business. The robot business segment will continue to expand the capabilities of robots by promoting the development strategy of 'robotization', 'internetization' and 'internationalization', and will increase the intelligence of robots, improve the user's user experience, and gradually realize An iterative development path for home service robots from 'tools' to 'housekeepers' to 'partners'. Builds on the core of robotics and uses its associated mobile internet application (APP) as a link, based on the data cloud, With the informationization of the enterprise, the ecological circle supported by automation.