Take Roborock. Founded by a group of Xiaomi-backed engineers in 2014, the Beijing-based company has quickly surged to take over the home robot vacuum market once dominated by iRobot and Roomba. It’s now the largest robot vacuum brand in the world.
I recently talked to Roborock’s president, Quan Gang, about how China has managed to move so quickly in this space. “In China, we have a very comprehensive supply chain,” he explained, which helps make “design and production very easy, competent and efficient.” China’s intense competition is also driving robotics firms to upgrade fast.
A company like iRobot might take two years to bring a product to market, but Roborock can do it in six months, Gang claimed. (Roborock’s newest innovation is a vacuum with a robotic arm that can pick up your socks.)
