A bitter rivalry between China’s two leading robot-vacuum makers has spilled from courtrooms into public opinion, with Dreame accusing Ecovacs of orchestrating paid smear campaigns and Ecovacs denying the charge. The dispute, which centres on a 2025 patent ruling in Dreame’s favour, has evolved into a multi-front battle of legal claims, marketing maneuvers and high-profile branding stunts.
Dreame’s compliance unit on March 10 published a detailed allegation after working with local authorities, saying it had identified organized “water army” operatives paid roughly 3 yuan per posting to flood Dreame product pages and social platforms with praise for Ecovacs and denigrating comments about Dreame. The complaint follows a January 30 social-media escalation by Dreame’s founder and a 2025 court judgment that ordered Ecovacs to pay roughly 8.87 million yuan for patent infringement — the legal flashpoint that first brought the rivalry into public view.
Ecovacs, a long-established domestic leader, has sought to defend its reputation while urging the sector to focus on products and technology. The Shenzhen-listed firm issued a formal denial in February, saying the accusations were baseless and vowing to pursue legal remedies against those responsible. At the time of writing it had not publicly responded to Dreame’s most recent statement.
The clash reflects deeper structural differences in strategy. Ecovacs built its dominance at home: market-monitoring data show it captured roughly 30.4% of China’s online robot-vacuum sales in 2025 and shipped about 4.7 million units globally, with some 68–72% of those sold domestically. That domestic strength underpins healthy margins — the company says high-end models make up about 60% of its mix and it expected net profit of 1.7–1.8 billion yuan for 2025.
Dreame, by contrast, is an overseas-first challenger. In 2025 roughly 80% of its revenue came from abroad, and IDC data place its overseas market share at 12–14%, higher than its 10.5% global share. Dreame shipped about 3.4 million units in 2025 and has used global success to press a high-profile return to China, including a prominent showing on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala that sent searches and e-commerce orders surging.
The two companies’ divergent footprints — Ecovacs’ domestic bedrock versus Dreame’s international diversification — explain why head-to-head competition has intensified. Dreame needs faster gains at home to match Ecovacs’ scale, while Ecovacs needs stronger overseas penetration to sustain growth. Each has leaned on different levers: legal action and patents for Dreame, brand and product depth for Ecovacs.
The public mudslinging matters beyond corporate reputations. As the sector matures and concentration rises, battles over patents, influencer campaigns and platform narratives will shape consumer trust, regulatory scrutiny and the economics of an industry already seeing margin pressure. Aggressive reputation tactics risk prompting stricter enforcement by platforms and authorities, and could accelerate consolidation if smaller rivals are squeezed.
For international observers, the dispute is a window into how Chinese consumer-robotics champions are scaling and contesting global leadership. The outcome will affect supply chains, pricing and standards in a category that sits at the intersection of software, hardware and home-automation ecosystems. Expect more litigation, sharper marketing wars and strategic moves — from local factory investment to celebrity-branding pushes — as both companies jockey for the decisive advantage.