Ecovacs banks on home health trend

As the COVID-19 outbreak has affected people's lives and work across the world, Ecovacs Robotics Ltd, China's largest in-home robotic products manufacturer by market share, has pledged to produce more innovative service robots to keep up with consumers' growing demand to maintain a healthy home environment.

The epidemic has forced manufacturers in China's robot vacuum cleaning sector to accelerate innovation pace to meet growing marketing needs created by the fast-changing demand from Chinese consumers for high-end products and the low penetration rate of smart home appliance products, according to a research released by the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development in late March.

David Qian, CEO of Ecovacs Robotics, said the COVID-19 outbreak has brought more growth points than challenges to the service robotics market in the long run.

"Home service robots are designed to help consumers improve their daily lives and adopt a new lifestyle. During the prevention and control of the epidemic, some people have raised their health consciousness. This will boost demand for smart household appliances," Qian said.

Eager to compete with its global established rivals, the Suzhou-based company launched its latest robotic vacuum cleaner Deebot with AI technology in March for automatic floor cleaning performance, and the latest air purifying robot Airbot, which claims to filter 99.9 percent of viruses and bacteria in the air.

In addition to donating public service robots for providing information services to patients and visitors at hospitals in Jiangsu and Gansu provinces in February, the firm also donated a number of air purifying robots to hospitals in Wuhan last month to help the city's fight against the virus.

Market analysts Euromonitor International predicted that in terms of absolute volume growth, robotic vacuum cleaners are expected to record the highest growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the period from 2016-21, driven by China, a place where internet retail has risen and unit price has decreased.

To follow this trend, Ecovacs has also speeded up efforts in online sales in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Supported by over 6,000 employees, the company operates two plants in Suzhou and Shenzhen and several branches around the globe, including locations in the United States, Germany and Japan.