The reality of involution in the blue ocean track: How does Ecovacs answer the exam questions of globalization and embodied intelligence | Frontline of IFA 2026

Author ｜ Huang Nan

Editor ｜ Yuan Silai

In Berlin in 2026, at the IFA 2026 exhibition site, household robots have become a major highlight of the Chinese hardware camp. Multiple categories of robots for sweeping and mopping, window cleaning, yard lawn mowing and pool maintenance are on centralized display, with covered scenarios extending from indoors to outdoors, from the ground to vertical surfaces and water surfaces.

The changes in its layout also reflect the evolution trend of the entire household robot industry in recent years: shifting from in-depth breakthroughs in a single category to platform-based competition covering all scenarios and multiple categories.

On September 3 local time, the day before the opening of IFA, the Forbes industry assessment report was released, officially rating Ecovacs as the world's No.1 household robot brand with a comprehensive score of 8.56. This assessment does not only focus on market share, but examines a more complete dimension: the depth of global operation, the implementation capability of multi-category commercialization, as well as technical and channel barriers from the upstream supply chain to the downstream brand end.

Looking at the global overall market, the growth logic of household service robots still holds. Data from IDC reports predicts that the size of China's cleaning robot market will reach nearly 3.4 billion US dollars in 2026, with a year-on-year increase of 18%. Among them, Chinese manufacturers account for more than 85% of the global shipment share. From the supply chain to product definition, Chinese hardware companies are deeply dominating this track.

The actual market perception in China forms a contrast. In the first half of 2026, the domestic sales revenue of sweeping robots fell by 4.0% year on year, and the sales volume decreased by 4.6% year on year.

On the one hand, there is a broad long-term incremental space, on the other hand, there is the realistic pressure of short-term market downturn and rising costs in the domestic market. The penetration rate of household sweeping robots in China is only 5-7%, and the fully educated existing users have become the core of competition.

Against this backdrop, Ecovacs achieved double-digit growth in both revenue and profit in the first half of 2026, with total revenue reaching 10.341 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.18%; net profit was 1.248 billion yuan, up 27.40% year on year.

Ecovacs sweeping robot on display at IFA 2026 (Source / Enterprise)

Behind the financial figures, Ecovacs' solutions fall into three interrelated directions: accelerating the deployment of business focus in overseas markets, reusing mature technology stacks to expand multi-scenario household hardware, and building a complete technology base to embrace the era of physical AI.

Overseas business is the core variable supporting Ecovacs' growth in this round. Data shows that Ecovacs' overseas revenue in the first half of the year accounted for 49.0% of the brand's total revenue, and exceeded 51.0% for the first time in the second quarter. This is the first time in the nearly 30 years since the brand was founded that overseas revenue has surpassed domestic revenue.

In terms of specific business, the overseas revenue of Ecovacs' main brand increased by 46.5% year on year, and the overseas revenue of Tineco increased by 40.6% year on year; the overseas growth rate of emerging categories such as window cleaning robots, lawn mowing robots and pool robots is particularly prominent, with a year-on-year revenue increase of 75.1%.

The explosion of the overseas market is not a short-term traffic dividend. Real globalization does not equal "selling products out", but the whole system of products, supply chain and services adapting to the global market.

Around 2015, Ecovacs established the idea of product localization, carried out customized adaptation according to the residential environment and usage habits in different regions, and formed a set of "3S" technical framework, namely Space (spatial perception), Setting (scene understanding) and Service (service delivery).

Qian Cheng, Vice Chairman of Ecovacs Group and CEO of Ecovacs Robotics, pointed out in his speech at IFA 2026 that the first layer is spatial perception; robots need to have basic perception capabilities, with the help of radar and sensor technology, to measure and map indoor and outdoor environments with centimeter-level and millimeter-level accuracy, which is the premise of all subsequent decisions.

Qian Cheng, Vice Chairman of Ecovacs Group and CEO of Ecovacs Robotics (Source / Enterprise)

The second layer is scene understanding. Different spaces such as indoor and outdoor, kitchen and bedroom, families with or without pets have completely different task requirements for robots. When AI identifies stains on the floor or pets in the house, the sweeping robot will automatically adjust the cleaning strategy, increase suction or switch the cleaning mode. Scene perception capability enables robots to evolve from "executing instructions" to "understanding the environment" and independently adjust behaviors according to environmental changes.

The third layer is service delivery. The cognition of space and scenarios is not limited to indoors. Outdoor lawns vary greatly in different regions, for example, the grass species in southern Europe are different from those in Northern Europe, and the lawn maintenance habits in the United States and Australia also have their own characteristics; the shape, material and layout of swimming pools are also very different. Only by deeply understanding the specific differences of these segmented scenarios can we provide truly adapted products and services for different markets.

Globalization opens up external growth space, while multi-category layout driven by homologous technology taps the incremental demand within households.

Ecovacs' category expansion is not illogical cross-border. The capabilities of perception, navigation, obstacle avoidance and motion control accumulated after ten years of iteration of sweeping robots are being systematically reused for more household tasks.

Winbot is the first category that succeeded under this reuse logic. The obstacle avoidance algorithm of the sweeping robot for identifying obstacles on the ground is migrated to the vertical scene to identify window frames, handles and glass edges; the obstacle-surmounting power for carpets and thresholds is reused as the control basis for Winbot to climb slopes and cross window frames. This migration supports Winbot to rank first in the global market for three consecutive years, with a market share of 65%, sales volume exceeding 1 million units in 2025, and has become a million-level independent category in the first half of 2026.

Similarly, the lawn mowing robot GOAT migrates the navigation and obstacle avoidance capability in complex indoor home environments to open yards, extending from identifying ground data lines and pet feces to identifying trees, flower beds and outdoor furniture; the SLAM algorithm is upgraded from indoor two-dimensional maps to three-dimensional modeling of yards. The pool robot ULTRAMARINE migrates the path planning algorithm from the pool water surface to the underwater environment, and the obstacle avoidance logic is reused from Winbot's identification experience of special-shaped structures on vertical surfaces.

Ecovacs lawn mowing robot GOAT (Source / Enterprise)

These three new categories share the same technology base. From the ground to vertical surfaces, yards and swimming pools, what Ecovacs has completed is the horizontal migration of technical capabilities, not blind category stacking.

But the imagination space of household robots is far more than tools, and the implementation of embodied intelligence is rewriting people's imagination boundaries.

Ecovacs is testing its self-developed "world model" based on service robots. The large model acts as the communication interface for human-computer interaction, with the help of human prior knowledge and language guidance, to assist robots in completing actions in the physical world, and prioritize the realization of implementable product forms.

On this basis, the company has also launched the bionic companion robot "Furry" and the open-source embodied robot platform "Eight Realms", accelerating the extension from deterministic housework tools to the cutting-edge field exploration of human-computer interaction and embodied intelligence.

Ecovacs bionic companion robot "Furry" (Source / Enterprise)

Today, Forbes' industry rating and Chinese manufacturers taking the top ranks in global sweeping robot sales mark that the domestic household robot industry has completed the identity transition from a follower to an industry definer. But defining the track does not mean solving all problems.

Industry competition is shifting from the parameter comparison of single hardware to the all-round competition of multi-scenario robot experience, and further extending to the in-depth competition of AI physical execution capability. The implementation cycle of this track is far longer than the market imagines.

Back to the IFA 2026 site. The window cleaning robot climbs quietly along the vertical glass surface, the lawn mowing robot automatically plans the path in the simulated yard, and the pool robot dives into the water to clean the wall. These robots of different forms are displayed side by side, outlining Ecovacs' understanding of "home": not only the ground, but also vertical surfaces, yards, swimming pools and even future companion spaces should be covered by robots.

With continuous understanding of space and scenarios, the vision of "let robots serve everyone" is broken down into specific categories one by one, and then delivered to the daily life of different families around the world. This is not a sprint, but a long-distance race with no end.

For companies that have been operating in the industry for more than 20 years, maintaining patience in uncertainty and continuing to invest in a long cycle is the norm of this business.