Roborock is not just any brand. This Chinese company has broken into traditional markets with great force thanks to the quality of its products and the innovation it offers in each generation of its robot vacuum cleaners. So much so that it has even stood up to iRobot. However, there is a lot of confusion with the Roborock brand. Is Xiaomi who is behind? Are you an independent company? Well, let’s get out of doubt.
Chinese brands go at their own pace
There are many ways to create brands . In the traditional European, American and Japanese markets they have always had their peculiar way of creating and organizing brands. For example, Japanese culture tends to have a single brand market many different products. An example would be Yamaha, which sells products as disparate as motorcycles and pianos under the same brand. The opposite case is the American. The Yankees camouflage different brands under the same conglomerate. When an American buys a Buick, a Cadillac, or a Chevrolet, he is actually buying General Motors. But the brands are separated to segment different audiences and take over the market for options that are from the same owner.
We understand more or less how the brands from Europe, Japan and the United States work, but when we bring China into the equation , we make a major cocoa. And it is that the Chinese have a rather peculiar way of moving their brands that we do not usually see in other markets. This is the main reason why we tend to think that any device compatible with the Mi Home ecosystem is a Xiaomi brand.
Xiaomi and Roborock are two different companies
Roborock was founded in July 2014. It was registered under the name ” Beijing Roborock Technology Co., Ltd “. Xiaomi was not part of its foundation, but it was a key part of its history. In September 2014, Roborock received a good investment from Xiaomi , and went on to become a key company in the ecosystem of the Chinese giant.
The brand started to work. In mid-2016, Xiaomi released the Mi Home Robotic Vacuum Cleaner , a product that was entirely made by Roborock. Come on, it was a case of badge engineering , a marketing technique that Xiaomi uses a lot together with the companies that are part of its ecosystem. This first robot was a success, and Roborock wanted to aspire to more —the joke has come out unintentionally—, not settling for being the company that manufactures robots for Xiaomi.
In September 2017, Roborock secured 10 million yuan funding through crowdfunding . Thus the Roborock Robotic Vacuum Cleaner was born, the first robot to bear the Roborock insignia.
Since then, the company has been able to manufacture machines on its own , although that does not mean that it has ceased to be a strategic partner of Xiaomi. Roborock uses the Mi Home ecosystem because it makes no sense to design something of your own when one of your most important shareholders is Xiaomi, a company of which you are also an important part. But beyond that, it is incorrect to refer to any Roborock machine as a Xiaomi vacuum cleaner.