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Chinese household appliances maker Dreame Technology will present gifts of gold and a trip to Antarctica to employees, on top of their year-end bonuses, as the company boosted its position as one of the world’s leading vendors of robot vacuum cleaners.
The additional largesse was revealed over the weekend by Dreame founder and CEO Yu Hao in two WeChat Moments posts.
Yu said every employee will receive a one-gram gold bonus in addition to their standard year-end payout. The company also planned to reward 10 employees with a trip to Antarctica, he added.
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The company’s total gold giveaway would cost roughly 26 million yuan (US$3.7 million), as retail gold prices currently hovered at 1,400 yuan per gram, according to a report by Hongxin News, which based that sum on an estimated internal staff count of around 18,500.
Dreame declined to comment on Monday.
The surprise reward underscored Dreame’s robust business growth this year, as Chinese robot vacuum cleaner vendors continued to dominate the global market.
The world’s top five vendors during the first three quarters of 2025 were Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, Xiaomi and Narwal, according to data from research firm IDC. These firms accounted for nearly 70 per cent of worldwide robot vacuum cleaner shipments during that period.
A user checks the dust bag of a Dreame robot vacuum cleaner. Photo: Dreame alt=A user checks the dust bag of a Dreame robot vacuum cleaner. Photo: Dreame>
Dreame’s 2025 midyear revenue already surpassed its 2024 total, which continued a six-year streak of maintaining a compound annual growth rate above 100 per cent, according to a report by news site 36Kr.
Founded in 2017, Dreame commanded a 12.4 per cent share of the global robot vacuum cleaner market in the first three quarters of 2025, according to IDC.
Based in Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, Dreame continued to aggressively diversify its product portfolio beyond smart cleaning. While building a range of home and kitchen appliances, outdoor smart equipment and personal care electronics, the company also ventured into highly competitive sectors such as smartphones and drones.
In August, Dreame announced its foray into electric vehicles. Its first ultra-luxury pure-electric car was expected to debut in 2027.
Dreame also recorded the fastest growth in new job listings among Chinese companies this year, according to a report by Maimai, China’s largest professional social networking platform.
New players, however, have also entered China’s smart cleaning sector. Chinese drone giant DJI in August launched Romo, its first robot vacuum cleaner.
Shenzhen-based Picea Robotics was also poised to acquire iRobot, the pioneer behind the Roomba, following the US firm’s bankruptcy filing earlier this month.
Despite the intense competition, the president of Dreame’s robotic vacuum division, Meng Jia, remained bullish. “Rising penetration rates and enhanced user experiences will drive steady growth for the robotic vacuum market in the coming years,” Meng told the Post in a recent interview.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.