The technology - driven and global - layout strategy has become a key factor for small - home - appliance enterprises to survive the market cycle.
Five years ago, a "black swan" event changed many industries, including the small - home - appliance industry. After that, the small - home - appliance industry rose against the trend and achieved explosive growth. However, with the release of the third - quarter reports, the situation has changed. The third - quarter reports show that as of October 31, 2025, the performance differentiation in the small - home - appliance industry has intensified. Leading cleaning appliance enterprises such as Ecovacs and Roborock have continued to maintain a high - growth trend, demonstrating strong market appeal, while traditional kitchen small - home - appliance enterprises such as Supor and Joyoung have generally faced the challenge of declining revenue.
In fact, this differentiation also reflects that different categories in the small - home - appliance industry are in different life - cycle stages. Cleaning appliances, as a growing category, rely on product innovation for continuous market penetration; kitchen small appliances have entered a mature stage and rely on replacement demand and consumption upgrading. At the same time, the national subsidy policy has a significant impact on the short - term sales rhythm of the industry, and the ability of brands to respond to market changes has also become a key factor in performance differentiation.
Cleaning appliances lead the growth, but there are hidden concerns behind the glory
The robot vacuum cleaner, as the original popular home appliance, has now developed into a very mature small - home - appliance category. In this field, Ecovacs and Roborock are well - matched.
The third - quarter report shows that Ecovacs achieved an operating revenue of 12.877 billion yuan in the first three quarters, a year - on - year increase of 25.93%; the net profit attributable to the parent company reached 1.418 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 130.55%. Especially eye - catching is the single - quarter performance in the third quarter, with the net profit attributable to the parent company surging by 7160.87% year - on - year, indicating a significant improvement in profitability. Roborock also performed well, with a single - quarter operating revenue of 4.163 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year - on - year increase of 60.71%, which is much higher than the average growth rate of 28% in the global intelligent cleaning equipment industry.
The high - speed growth of cleaning appliance brands mainly benefits from the multiple drivers of continuous technology upgrading, product innovation breakthroughs, and global channel layout. Roborock invested as much as 1.028 billion yuan in research and development in the first three quarters, a year - on - year increase of 60.56%, showing a strong investment in technology. The company has successfully achieved diversified expansion from robot vacuum cleaners to categories such as floor washers and washer - dryers through the construction of "technology transfer capabilities".
Ecovacs mainly optimizes the product structure and implements cost - reduction and efficiency - improvement measures internally, which has increased the gross profit margin by 7.73 percentage points year - on - year in the third quarter, and the operational management efficiency has been significantly improved.
At the same time, the low penetration rate of cleaning appliances means that there is still room for market growth, and it is still a growing category. According to the data, the penetration rate in North America and Europe is 15% - 20%, and in the Asia - Pacific region, it is less than 10%, so the development space is broad.
However, behind the eye - catching high -
