Why did the Spring Festival Gala give the top spot to Dreame's robot vacuum cleaners?

The changing dynamics of power in the business world always leave subtle clues at the peak of public attention.

On the Chinese New Year's Eve in 2026, while hundreds of millions of families were staying up late to see the New Year in, the highly tech - infused program "Intelligent Manufacturing for the Future" made its debut. When the song "Made in China" sung by Jordan Chan, Jerry Yan, Luo Jiahao, and Jackson Yee rang out, Dreame's vacuum cleaner, as a representative of new - quality productivity, took the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, setting a historical record as the first vacuum cleaner product on the Gala.

Such great trust and glory make people wonder:

Why did Dreame's vacuum cleaner become the first smart product to appear on the Gala?

The program arrangement of the Spring Festival Gala takes into account various factors such as the theme of the era, national awareness, product category cycle, and industry benchmarks.

An obvious phenomenon is that in the 2026 Year of the Horse CCTV Spring Festival Gala, tech products outnumbered fast - moving consumer goods and became the main force. This change is also a reflection of the engine of the national economy.

The appearance of the first vacuum cleaner product in the history of the Spring Festival Gala means that in the eyes of the national - level narrative, this product category has become a regular consumer good, qualified to represent the lifestyle of Chinese families in this era, and the tech track it belongs to precisely represents the direction of China's economic transformation.

Before understanding why the Spring Festival Gala chose Dreame's vacuum cleaner as the first smart product to be unveiled, we need to clarify a fact: When did the category of robotic vacuum cleaners start to mature?

The earliest commercial attempt of robotic vacuum cleaners can be traced back to 1997. It was the product launched by iRobot in 2002 that really brought this category into global households. This American company pioneered the modern household cleaning robot. However, IDC data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, the top five global robotic vacuum cleaner shipments were all dominated by Chinese brands, accounting for more than 65% of the total market share.

That is to say, the uniqueness of robotic vacuum cleaners lies in the fact that "Made in China" has achieved an all - round victory in direct competition with established overseas giants in the international market. Dreame's vacuum cleaner is one of the representative players.

As of 2025, Dreame's robotic vacuum cleaners have shown strong performance in the global market. According to industry reports, it ranks first in the market share in 30 countries and regions around the world, with a particularly prominent advantage in the European market.

The products that are unveiled first on the Spring Festival Gala usually belong to a category that can reflect the values of the era. It sends a clear signal: The era of smart home appliances has arrived. TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines were the standard equipment for Chinese families in the industrial era, while in the smart era, a robotic vacuum cleaner has become a must - have for households.

In high - value product categories, the Spring Festival Gala favors real technology leaders more because these brands that break through with technology can remove the stereotype of "cheap substitutes" from Chinese manufacturing and arouse national pride.

The dominance of Dreame's vacuum cleaner in the high - end market verifies this point: For a long time, Chinese home appliance brands were accustomed to using cost - effectiveness to gain global market share, but Dreame's vacuum cleaner has broken this path. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) at the beginning of this year, Dreame's new - generation flagship product, the X60 series, made the vacuum cleaner category a highlight that attracted a lot of attention.

Therefore, Dreame's vacuum cleaner becoming the first smart product on this year's Spring Festival Gala not only benefits from the intelligent transformation of Chinese family lifestyles and the high - frequency and high - end cleaning needs but also reflects its own product strength. It can even be said that it is the technological evolution path of Dreame's vacuum cleaner that has changed the status of this product category from an optional item to a necessary item for everyone.

Technology for All: The Foundation of National Trust

The technological story of Dreame's vacuum cleaner can start with a detail.

In 2022, through user surveys, Dreame found that despite years of technological development, the corner - cleaning ability remained a core pain point. Traditional robotic vacuum cleaners would leave a 5 - centimeter gap along the wall that couldn't be cleaned. Although it sounds insignificant, once this problem is solved, the user experience will be significantly improved, and it can also address the cognitive bottleneck of many users who think that "robots are not as thorough as humans in cleaning."

To solve this user pain point, Dreame developed a bionic robotic arm technology, enabling the vacuum cleaner to think about the cleaning logic like a human being. After identifying corner areas such as walls and table legs, it can expand the mop like a human hand, achieving a corner coverage of less than 0.1 centimeters. Later, through pioneering technologies such as self - cleaning base stations and bionic multi - joint mechanical feet, Dreame solved the problem of secondary labor, making the vacuum cleaner evolve into a truly intelligent and independent cleaning force.

Only when the usability of technology reaches a critical point will the popularization of a product category truly accelerate. Dreame's vacuum cleaner has maintained a 100% annual compound growth rate for six consecutive years, and its revenue in 2025 doubled compared to 2024. Such commercial momentum is extremely rare.

Subsequently, in response to the demand for in - depth hygiene maintenance, Dreame broke through the pain points of cross - influence in different areas such as kitchens and bathrooms with its automatic mop - changing technology. It also built a miniaturized "rail transit system" inside the machine, matching exclusive mops for different spaces, leading the vacuum cleaner industry into an era of refined cleaning with dedicated - area cleaning.

Carpet cleaning used to be the "Achilles' heel" of the vacuum cleaner industry. Dreame's vacuum cleaner pioneered the AI carpet roller mask for this purpose. The original inspiration was very simple: to put a "raincoat" on the mop. However, adding a mechanical structure inside the highly space - constrained vacuum cleaner required reconstructing the entire water circuit and obstacle - avoidance system. The R & D team had a long - term battle just to find a thin and tough material.

In response to the cleaning challenges of multi - story buildings, Dreame's vacuum cleaner pioneered the bionic six - legged three - stage crawler technology, enabling the robotic vacuum cleaner to climb steps up to 35 centimeters high, further expanding its working range.

This series of technological innovation trends not only place extremely high demands on the supply - chain manufacturing capabilities but also pose great challenges to Dreame's pursuit of extreme R & D. However, it is precisely this day - in and day - out, year - after - year perseverance that has made the vacuum cleaner evolve towards a bionic robot with a higher degree of freedom, becoming the prelude to embodied intelligence. The focus of industry competition has long shifted from the initial parameters such as suction power to high - value attributes with more intelligent features.

Dreame's extreme pursuit of technological innovation is also the key reason why it, as a representative of new - quality productivity, first appeared on the Spring Festival Gala and was featured in the most tech - infused program "Intelligent Manufacturing for the Future."

The selection of technological products for the Spring Festival Gala stage is based on the stability of technology and its social value. After in - depth research on the reasons behind Dreame's amazing commercial growth, the Spring Festival Gala has also responded with action: In the narrative of "Made in China" leading the global tech wave and using cutting - edge technology to improve people's lives, Dreame's vacuum cleaner is an indispensable example.

In the latest review by the well - known German testing platform SmarthomeAssistent, Dreame's flagship model, Matrix 10 Ultra, ranked first in the comprehensive ranking. In the 2025 Best Robotic Vacuum Cleaner list of the authoritative American testing institution VACUUM WARS, three Dreame products dominated the list, with the L50 Ultra topping the list. Technological innovation is never self - proclaimed. The global comparison results outline the profile of a typical industry benchmark.

What supports the implementation of these technologies is Dreame's long - term high - intensity R & D investment. The proportion of R & D personnel in the company is about 70%, and the R & D investment accounts for more than 7% of the revenue. In the field of high - speed digital motors, Dreame is the world's first company to achieve mass production of motors with 200,000 revolutions per minute. The R & D strategy of "mass - producing one generation, researching and developing the next generation, and reserving the third generation" continuously transforms technological advantages into product strength, ultimately making the robotic vacuum cleaner an indispensable part of modern households, just like refrigerators and washing machines.

Co - creation with Users: Spreading the Warmth of Technology Globally

There is another deep - seated reason why Dreame's vacuum cleaner has reached this height: It doesn't develop products in isolation but chooses to co - create with users.

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala is a microcosm of Chinese popular culture, which means that it is the users' choice that has pushed Dreame's vacuum cleaner onto the Gala stage.

The tech industry often has an arrogance of thinking it can define user needs, but Dreame has chosen a different path, returning the right to decide needs to users.

There is a mechanism called the "ten - step insight method" within Dreame's R & D department for in - depth exploration of user needs. What's more interesting is their "bubble algorithm." During the new product development stage, 20 product solutions to be evaluated are presented to users each time. Both domestic and overseas users score and rank these solutions, and only the top 10% - 20% of the ideas in the comprehensive ranking can get R & D resource investment.

More than 80% of the functions of Dreame's newly launched products today come from the choices of these so - called "top players" (users). The user - decision - first model ensures that every technological implementation has the possibility of becoming an instant hit.

This user - centered approach not only works in China but also enables Dreame's vacuum cleaner to achieve remarkable global in - depth localization, making it more qualified to represent Chinese tech brands in front of the global live - broadcast cameras of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

In Northeast Europe, a large proportion of families have long - haired carpets, and they have a strong demand for carpet protection. That's why Dreame's vacuum cleaner targeted this problem and developed the AI carpet roller mask. In a social media cleaning challenge in North America, users drew comic strips to tell their life stories after having a Dreame vacuum cleaner, which spread continuously on social media. In Poland, Dreame's vacuum cleaner has built a deeply interactive local community, which has accumulated a considerable number of active users in just one year.

Just as important as its technological strength, global user cases are also the confidence for Dreame's vacuum cleaner to appear on the Spring Festival Gala.

Humanism that transcends geographical boundaries is a globally recognized hard currency. Dreame's vacuum cleaner has successfully demonstrated the second advantage of "Made in China" in global competition besides technological innovation: the ability to sensitively understand and quickly respond to diverse user needs and build deep emotional connections.

This is why people now say that Chinese brands understand life better.

Similarly, what the Spring Festival Gala wants to show to the Chinese people is the life of the current era. A robotic vacuum cleaner that understands human nature, users, and the warmth of life is a natural fit for the Spring Festival Gala, a cultural stage for seeking emotional resonance.

In 1984, a clock and watch company named Kangbasi rang the bell on this stage and became the first sponsor in the history of the Spring Festival Gala. In that era when the commodity economy was just budding, its 3,000 quartz clocks represented the awakening of "Made in China" in the market. Forty years later, the Spring Festival Gala is witnessing the global expansion of "Intelligent Manufacturing in China."

In 2026, as the first smart product on the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala, Dreame's vacuum cleaner once again hits the core narrative of this era: a proposition about how "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" evolves, how Chinese technology goes global, and how Chinese brands interact with lifestyles.

The first vacuum cleaner in the history of the Spring Festival Gala will be like a seal of the era, stamped on the picture of the changing lifestyle of Chinese families. Behind each category benchmark are stories that condense the warmth of technology and national identity.

In 2026, the smart home represented by the robotic vacuum cleaner is no longer a matter of debate about its necessity. It has quietly become a part of the national life and the proudest technological footnote hand - picked by the national grand event.