IRobot to further tap domestic market

With an eye to making China one of the largest markets for its robotic home vacuums, iRobot, a US consumer robot manufacturer, says it welcomes China's fast paced robotic development and is eager to leverage that by investing more in research and development.

China has become "one of the largest markets for robot vacuums worldwide; it has had accelerated growth over the past three years," said Christian Cerda, chief operating officer of iRobot, adding that China is the fastest growing market and the fourth-largest region for the company.

IRobot launched a floor mopper tailor-made for the China market in 2016 and established a commercial team at a Shanghai office to directly manage sales, marketing and after-sales service, in order to be more responsive to the local market, said Cathy Song, communications manager at iRobot China.