400In February 2025, a piece of news went viral in the domestic home appliance circle:
"Dreame's intelligent lawn mowing robot shipment volume has exceeded 100,000 units!"
This number may not seem large, but its significance is extraordinary: this is thefirst time a Chinese brand has gained a firm foothold in the high-end European and American garden tool market.
In the past, these "fancy" products were long monopolized by established brands like Germany's Bosch and America's Husqvarna. Dreame managed to "snatch a piece of the pie" from them with a smart robot that can automatically avoid flower beds and dodge pets.
Even more surprising, the founder of this company is a Tsinghua academic who loved "taking things apart" as a child.
Image source: Internet
u The "motor fanatic" who emerged from Tsinghua's laboratory
Dreame's founder, Yu Hao, is a typical "tech geek".
According to records, at age 12, he invented a "dual-control circuit" because the light switch at home was inconveniently placed, allowing him to control the same lamp from both the bedroom door and the bedside.
This "solve it with technology rather than manual labor" mindset later became Dreame's core gene.
In 2005, Yu Hao was recommended to Tsinghua to study aerospace, but his most famous "creation" wasn't a rocket—it was founding Tsinghua's "Sky Workshop", a maker community gathering geeks.
This group tinkered with drones and robots every day, even building their own Formula cars. But no one expected that they would later switch to making vacuum cleaners.
Tsinghua "Sky Workshop" Image source: Tsinghua University
The turning point came in 2015.
At that time, Dyson's V6 vacuum cleaner sold for over 3,000 yuan, but domestic manufacturers couldn't even make a knockoff—the core high-speed motor technology was monopolized by foreign companies.
Yu Hao slammed the table: "This thing is like the chip in a mobile phone; without it, domestic products will always play a supporting role."
So he led his lab team, burning out over a thousand parts in two years, and finally developedChina's first 100,000 rpm high-speed motor in 2017.
Image source: Internet
u From "Xiaomi OEM" to global dark horse
In its early days, Dreame always carried the "Xiaomi ecosystem" label.
After joining the Xiaomi ecosystem at the end of 2017, Dreame's first-generation vacuum cleaner V9 was crowdfunded on Xiaomi, selling 15 million yuan in 6 days, relying on "one-third the price of Dyson, 80% of the performance".
But Dreame's ambitions didn't stop there. In 2020, it decisively left Xiaomi and launched its own brand, Dreame, pushing vacuum cleaner speeds to 150,000 rpm, while pricing 40% lower than Dyson.
Image source: Internet
This strategy of "matching international brands in technical specs, but halving the price" is a dimensionality reduction attack overseas. German media once joked: "The Chinese defeated Dyson using Dyson's own methods."
By 2023, Dreame's overseas revenue accounted for over 60%, with products sold in 120 countries, even exporting to Japan, a "home appliance island" that's tough for even Dyson to crack.
The 2024 Hurun Global Unicorn List further shows itsvaluation has reached 20 billion yuan.
Image source: 2024 Hurun Global Unicorn List
u From IFA awards to 100,000 lawn mower shipments
Such a high valuation is closely tied to Dreame's rapid development in 2024.
In February 2024, Dreame's intelligent lawn mowing robot sold explosively during Europe's Prime Day, with sales exceeding 20 million yuan, directly taking the top spot in the over 1,000 euro price segment.
By September, Dreame made another splash at the Berlin IFA exhibition. Its boundary-free intelligent lawn mower and upgraded Dreame Roboticmower A2 won Germany's "Golden Computer Award". This award is not given lightly; judges have strict requirements for technology, design, and user experience, and it carries significant weight!
Image source: Internet
u The "ice and fire" of the global home appliance market
A deep dive into Dreame's rise shows it is inseparable from a keen insight into market demand:
1. Mature markets need upgrading: North America and Western Europe may grow slowly, but smart home penetration has exceeded 40%, and consumers are willing to pay for "black technology". According to Magic Mirror Insight, in H1 2024, the cleaning appliance segment was the largest in the US Amazon home appliance market, with sales reaching 12.75 billion yuan, a slight year-on-year increase of 1.2%.
Image source: Magic Mirror Insight
2. Emerging markets need popularization: Southeast Asia's home appliance market is still in rapid development, with 2023 sales reaching 23.8 billion yuan and 190 million units sold; in the first half of 2024, sales reached 18.4 billion yuan, up over 92% year-on-year. The data shows the market outlook is still very promising.
Image source: Magic Mirror Insight
It is in this environment that Dreame identified the global demand for high cost-performance smart home appliances, seized the opportunity, and drove rapid brand growth.
u TikTok + independent site = "combo punch"
Meanwhile, leveraging TikTok and other overseas social media for marketing has also fueled Dreame's rapid overseas growth.
On TikTok, Dreame's official account (@dreametech_official) currently has 139,600 followers and over 1 million likes, performing quite well.
Image source: TikTok
Dreame's TikTok video content mainly focuses on real-world tests. For example, one video shows how its floor washer easily cleans up milk and raw egg stains, with the process being both efficient and satisfying.
In just 20 seconds, the video hit over 5 million views, with many European and American users asking about prices in the comments—clearly, this kind of content resonates with them.
Image source: TikTok
So far, through video-driven sales, Dreame's TikTok US store sales have nearly reached $1.39 million.
It can be said that TikTok has brought Dreame huge traffic and exposure, especially among young consumers in Europe and America.
Image source: Echotik
But Dreame didn't put all its eggs in one basket; it also built its own independent brand site.
Dreame's independent site is designed simply and directly, with the most prominent feature on the homepage being the promise of "30-day free trial, free return shipping", which especially reassures European and American consumers.
Especially when shopping online, many European and American consumers worry about product quality or after-sales service. Dreame's approach gives them more confidence to try buying.
At the same time, the independent site provides Dreame with precise user data, helping the brand better understand consumer needs in different regions.
For example, Dreame found that German consumers particularly value "pet hair cleaning", so it quickly launched a sweeping robot with "pet mode"; in the US, Dreame adjusted product specs and launched models with "large capacity water tanks" favored by American consumers.
Image source: Dreame independent site
u A "serious" technology marathon
Looking back at Dreame's eight years, what is most moving is not how much funding it raised, but its relentless spirit.
For example, when Yu Hao dismantled a Dyson motor in Tsinghua's lab, he found that if a gear's precision was off by 0.01 mm, the whole machine's noise would be outrageous. So when Dreame made products, even the mop's rotation angle was tested with 178 different solutions.
This "serious" spirit seems out of place in an era of quick money, but it perfectly explains why "Made in China" has transformed from "cheap goods" to "tech-driven"!
On Amazon, a German user once left a comment about Dreame's lawn mower: "It knows my lawn better than I do."
Perhaps this is the best praise for a Chinese brand—not relying on low prices, but on solid technology that makes the world willingly pay!
