Chinese robotics start-up pushes large cleaning robots in Hong Kong, Macau
Published: 5:40pm, 27 Jan 2025 Chinese start-up Suzhou Intelligence Technology, a maker of large cleaning robots for commercial properties, is eyeing Hong Kong and Macau as key new markets for its products, founder and chief executive Kong Bing said. Kong, who previously worked at Swedish-Swiss electrical engineering firm ABB and German industrial robot maker Kuka , said his company's products under the Partner Robot brand are used on special surfaces such as marble and granite. 'Hong Kong and Macau are definitely key markets for us [to expand operations],' Kong told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the China Conference: Greater Bay Area 2025 – a two-day event held in Guangzhou , capital of southern Guangdong province, earlier this month.
'Given high labour costs and requirements for hygiene, [the two markets] are perfectly suitable for the promotion of our robots,' he added. Compared to household robot vacuum cleaners from the likes of iRobot and Roborock , products from Suzhou Intelligence Technology are bigger in size and used at large commercial establishments such as shopping centres and airports.
Commercial-grade cleaning robots are harder to obtain because these have not been widely adopted, according to Kong. As such, these products offer more growth potential, he said.
'The target users of household cleaning robots are very clear. One can simply market it as a housewarming gift or a gift for the elderly,' Kong said. 'It's much more complicated to persuade commercial property management companies to buy a cleaning robot, which has to involve many stakeholders in these firms.'
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